Israeli Scrabble clubs shut doors due to COVID-19

Clubs in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem play Scrabble in English, have enthusiastic and loyal membership

Scrabble enthusiasts from the clubs in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have played as missiles rained down on Israel. But the coronavirus pandemic has forced the clubs to shut down — at least for the duration of the outbreak.

Both clubs play Scrabble in English and have an enthusiastic and loyal membership. The Sam Orbaum Jerusalem Scrabble Club, which is one of the largest in the world with approximately 35 players weekly, is named for its founder, the late Sam Orbaum, who was an editor and columnist for The Jerusalem Post and who started the club in 1983.

This week, it posted this message on its website: “In its 36-year history, the Sam Orbaum Jerusalem Scrabble Club has shut down only once… during the Gulf War of 1991, instructed by the Home Guard. Twenty-nine years later, we find ourselves under the same order again, with the small compensation that today there is online Scrabble (on Facebook, at www.isc.ro and elsewhere). The enemy, we understand, though smaller, is more deadly by far. Wishing everyone good health for the duration.”

Its members actually played during the first Gulf War wearing gas masks. But eventually it closed briefly to comply with a government directive.

“We never cancel… We’re religious about it. We played during the Intifadas,” said David Litke, the director of the Jerusalem Scrabble Club, who works as a family budget counselor. “For some of our old-timers, it’s a social club as well as a Scrabble club.”

But there are elderly members in their 80s or even 90s, and all too quickly it became clear that there was no choice.

“We began to question whether we should continue last week,” Litke said. Even before the government ban on gatherings went into effect, he realized there was no way they would be able to keep playing.

Evan Cohen, the director of the Tel Aviv Scrabble Club, which first opened its doors in 1998, came to the same realization. For the first time in its history, the club was unable to meet.

Even during the Gaza War in 2014 and other times when missiles fell on the city, the club continued to play.

“People could choose to come, and if there was a missile alert, we could go to a so-called safe zone,” he recalled.

But with the novel coronavirus, there is no room for personal choice, Cohen said.

While the Israeli Scrabble community understands the situation all too well, it won’t be easy for them to forego their regular meetings.

“Scrabble is my passion... And it’s a social thing,” said Cohen, a lecturer in linguistics at Tel Aviv University. “I see these people every Monday night, I see them more than my friends and my family.”

Viva Press, a journalist and speaker who was the arts editor at the Post and who has played Scrabble at both clubs, is now a regular at the Tel Aviv branch.

“Monday nights for me are holy,” she said. “Some people who don’t play don’t really get it. It’s not just another game.”

There are plenty of online Scrabble options, but for many, virtual Scrabble doesn’t have the same thrill as playing in person.

“I started playing on Facebook,” said Press. “I don’t like it that much, but I have to have my fix.”

Israeli Scrabble players will make do for the time being online, she said, but the “moment the coronavirus is gone, we will be back, clicking tiles, setting clocks and playing the game.”