Rather like jews falsely claiming they invented games such as Bingo (1) and Yahtzee (2) the game of Rummikub seems to have a solid jewish pedigree until you bother to dig just a little bit deeper.
The conventional historical narrative around the origins of Rummikub as well as a hint as to where it actually comes from is provided by Shaked Karabelnicoff writing for ‘Unpacked’ that:
‘The story of Rummikub traces back to Romania in the 1940s.
Ephraim Hertzano, a lifelong resident of the country, worked as a salesman dealing mainly in toothbrushes and cosmetics. Outside of work, he enjoyed playing rummy with friends.
However, when communists assumed control of Romania, they banned the use of playing cards, and branded all forms of card-playing as “gambling” under their strict regime.
Faced with this obstacle, Hertzano had a unique and clever idea. Racking his brain to find a substitute for the card games he loved, he wondered: could rummy be played with tiles instead of cards?
As the saying goes, innovation often thrives in the face of adversity.’ (3)
The second to last paragraph is the key one:
‘Faced with this obstacle, Hertzano had a unique and clever idea. Racking his brain to find a substitute for the card games he loved, he wondered: could rummy be played with tiles instead of cards?’
In other words, Rummikub isn’t actually Hertzano’s creation but rather is simply a direct adaptation of ‘the card games that he loved’ that derive from the Rummy card game family to use tiles rather than playing cards.
As ‘Board Game Geek’ explains:
‘Like Rummy that you play with cards, you try to get rid of all your tiles by forming numbers into runs of 3 tiles or more, or 3 to 4 of a kind. The colors of the numbers on the tiles are like card suits. This game may start rather uneventfully, but when the players start putting more and more tiles in play, the options for your upcoming turns can become more complex, challenging, and exciting.’ (4)
But what card is Rummikub a copy of?
Well, there are two very similar card games that played the same way that the different versions of Rummikub are playing: Machiavelli (aka Thirty-Six) and Vatikan. (5)
Put another way: Hertzano didn’t create anything all he did was switch playing cards for tiles in Machiavelli/Vatican and claim to have invented a new game called Rummikub.
Thus Hertzano didn’t invent anything, but he did steal something and pass it off as his own.
References
(1) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-bingo
(2) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-yahtzee
(3) https://unpacked.media/the-jewish-history-of-rummikub-how-an-israeli-entrepreneur-created-an-international-sensation/
(4) https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/811/rummikub
(5) Ibid.; https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/rummikub/