30 | NOVEMBER 7 • 2019
T
hey’
re getting older now, but not
much will stop the Rummikub
ladies, who have been getting togeth-
er every week for more than 42 years to
schmooze and play the tile-based game.
They started in 1977, soon after Laura
Trosch, then 42, lost her husband. She
felt she needed to make new friends. An
older neighbor introduced her to Phyllis
Kramer. They liked each other and decided
they’
d each bring in another friend so they
could start a Rummikub quartet. Trosch
invited Shelia Levine — their daughters
were friends — and Kramer invited Shirley
Marshak.
At their first meeting, the group burst
out laughing as they realized that Trosch,
Levine and Marshak had been classmates,
graduating from Central High School in
1953. Kramer, who at 81 calls herself “the
baby of the group,
” graduated from Central
two years later.
After nine years together, the women
thought it would be wise to have a fifth per-
son in their group, in case one of them was
ill, on vacation or otherwise unable to play.
Trosch’
s son had just gotten engaged. She
thought a good way to make a friend out of
her future machetenista (daughter’
s moth-
er-in-law) would be to invite her into the
Rummikub group, and Esther Icikson has
been with them since then. Icikson, who
came to Detroit from Israel in 1958, is the
only non-Central grad in the group.
There were other ties. Levine’
s daughter,
Rhonda (Linovitz), and Kramer’
s daughter,
Elaine (Peters), were — and still are — best
friends.
When all five are present, the women
take turns sitting out a hand while the other
four play.
Rummikub was the “in” game when the
women formed their group. Since then,
Trosch has learned to play mahjong, Icikson
learned bridge and Marshak took up canas-
ta. But Rummikub maintains a special place
in their hearts.
The game was invented after World
War II by Ephraim Hertzano in Romania,
when card-playing was outlawed by the
Communist regime. Hertzano immigrated
to British-controlled Palestine and contin-
ued to develop the game at his home in Bat
Yam. By the late 1970s, it was the best-sell-
ing game in the United States.
Rummikub uses eight sets of colored,
numbered tiles plus two jokers. Players
place tiles to create sets of same-numbered
tiles of different colors or runs of consecu-
tive-numbered tiles of the same color, sim-
ilar to the sets and runs in the gin rummy
card game.
Children love the game because it’
s
so easy to learn, Marshak said. All the
women have played with their children
and grandchildren (and Trosch and
Icikson are looking forward to playing
with great-grandchildren).
For most of their time together the
women took turns hosting the Wednesday
evening games. Recently they’
ve been
meeting at Kramer’
s Farmington Hills
home every week because she’
s unable to
leave her husband alone in the evening.
They play for money — the three losers
of each hand pony up a whopping penny-
a-point, up to a maximum loss of $2 per
week, which goes to the winner of that
hand. And every week each woman pays
$3 “dues” to Levine. When there’
s enough
in the kitty, every three or four months,
they treat themselves to a nice lunch or
dinner.
Over the years the women have shared
some sorrows and many joys. In the spring
of 1986, they celebrated three weddings
within a month, first Kramer’
s daughter,
then Levine’
s daughter, then the union of
Trosch’
s son and
Icikson’
s daughter.
What keeps them going is their genuine
affection for one another. “We enjoy play-
ing and we enjoy each other’
s company,”
said Marshak of West Bloomfield.
“In 42 years, we’
ve never had a disagree-
ment other than picking a restaurant,”
Levine said.
Weekly
Ritual
Nothing stops the
Rummikub ladies from their
Wednesday night game.
PHOTOS BY JERRY ZOLYNSKY
BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
COUNTER CLOCKWISE: Phyllis Kramer of Farmington Hills, Shirley Marshak of West Bloomfield, Laura Trosch of
Southfield, Esther Icikson of West Bloomfield and Shelia Levin of West Bloomfield. Phyllis Kramer of Farmington
Hills reacts to her come-from-behind victory. Shirley Marshak of West Bloomfield is given a thumbs-up after
her win from Esther Icikson of West Bloomfield.
Jews in the D