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

