Wednesday, June 3, 2026
By Annabel Taylor
Ivory tile “suits” engraved with bright drawings of bamboo and flowers click across the table in unison. “Five-bam,” says one woman; “two crack,” says another, glancing back at the game’s official card, speckled with numbers and colors. Drinks pour and plates clink as they play. Across the circle, a player suddenly slams down a tile with a wide grin: “Mah Jongg.” Groans turn into laughter as hands collapse, and the next game begins.
From Southern China’s Yangtze River Delta to Jewish-American coffee tables, the game of Mah-Jongg has spanned centuries and cultures. In 1846, four years after China’s First Opium War, American businessman Joseph P. Babcock brought Mah Jongg home and initiated the country’s 150 year-long love affair with the game.
First commercially sold at Abercrombie & Fitch, Mah Jongg exploded throughout the 1920s in all sectors of American life. Despite its strong ties to Chinese diaspora, the game was originally marketed towards Americans as a new, exotic form of gambling.
Mah Jongg is a fast-paced tile game, traditionally played with four people. The word “mahjong” translates to “sparrow” in Southern Chinese dialects, a reference to the bird-like clatter of tiles—or pais—during shuffling and stacking. There are more than 40 variations of the game but the basic object remains the same: build a winning hand faster than your opponent.
By the end of the decade, though, mainstream interest in Mah Jongg had begun to wane—still, Jewish American women held onto the game and made it their own. In 1937, a group of Jewish women founded the National Mah Jongg League (NMJL) which still standardizes the American rendition of the game’s rules today. The League releases a card with each year’s winning combination of tiles every April.
A woman named Nina playing mah jongg. Courtesy Caryn Fagan.
Historians cite various factors for Jews’ strong ties to the game. While their husbands were off fighting in World War II, Mah Jongg served as an inexpensive entertainment medium and community-builder for Jewish American women. Moreover, Jews who fled Nazi Europe and settled in Shanghai became exposed to the culture, later bringing it to mid-century America. Just as Bridge was spreading through other middle-class suburban social circles, Mah Jongg grew in popularity through synagogue sisterhoods and Hadassah chapters. The Catskills’ bungalow colonies—mid-20th century Jewish vacation sites—were another facilitator of the game. Soon, Mah Jongg became a telltale marker of the Jewish-American way.
Avid Mah Jongg player Heather Golde learned the game from her mother-in-law on a rainy beach trip in 2020. Since then, Golde has passed the game on to her friends and daughter. According to Golde, Mah Jongg is as much of a social event as it is a game. The rhythm of the game itself facilitates community; the pause between rounds used to shuffle tiles allows players to converse and catch up.
“We occasionally do nights out at different locations that have some Mahjong-oriented events,” Golde said. “I also squeeze in ‘lunch break’ games with friends who play in the neighborhood. One of us usually picks up food from a local shop like Tatte and we play for a couple of hours.”
Mah Jongg tournaments, classes and the sale of rules cards have long been used for philanthropic endeavors. In that same spirit, Golde approached friend and Glen Echo Board of Directors Vice President Barbara Martin in fall 2025 with an idea for a Mah Jongg themed fundraiser at Glen Echo. The goal: to aid with the restoration of the park’s historical infrastructure. The event proved to be a success, drawing a dozen novice players and a large turn-out of experienced players and raised $3,000.
Teaching the game to newcomers requires a certain methodology. Golde acknowledged that first-time players may feel intimidated by Mah Jongg’s complexity.
“There are a lot of what seems like arbitrary rules and strange superstitious aspects,” Golde said. “However, once you get past that initial hump you start to get the hang of it. The key is to not give up after lesson one.”
In the midst of the Mah Jongg renaissance, D.C. is no exception. From public libraries to fusion restaurants, the game seems inescapable. In Penn Quarter, Chinese American restaurant Lucky Danger’s back-room includes three automatically shuffling Mah Jong tables. The Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum attracts big crowds for drop-in Mah Jongg sessions every Sunday afternoon. Many public libraries in the district, like the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library and Cleveland Park Library, host weekly sessions for players of all skill levels, drawing almost 100 players every week.
Mah Jongg instructor and American Mah Jongg Association member Caryn Fagan teaches classes across the region at venues like The GeorgeTown Club and the West End Ritz Carlton’s restaurant, Quadrant. Fagan started teaching the game when she found herself unhappy at her job. Taking advice to “follow her passion,” she looked to a constant in her life—Mah Jongg. Despite the physical barrier when she began teaching during the pandemic, Fagan found a way to cultivate a sense of camaraderie in her community through the game.
“After the masks came off, and the word spread around, the game exploded,” Fagan said. “It seems everyone wants to learn and to be part of Mah Jongg groups.”
For Fagan, the game was a backdrop for some of her most cherished memories. As a child, she learned from observing her mother’s circle of friends. She was never formally taught the game—she just knew it. In the weeks leading up to Mah Jongg night, her mother would fill the house with elaborate displays of brownies, cookies and cakes. When the long-awaited day finally came, she recalls hearing the clicking of Mah Jongg tiles, chatter and laughter from her childhood bedroom.
As the centuries old game finds a new audience in the younger generation, one thing is for certain: Mah Jongg isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Fagan believes the game’s resurgence is fueled by a universal need for connection.
“I have so many fond memories of playing Mah Jongg,” Fagan said. “But I think the best, most heartwarming memories are being with my friends, sharing our lives’ ups and downs, and laughing so hard we cried.”