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    Making Game Night Jewish

    By Annie Prusky, Jewish Life Specialist

    Introduction:

    For community builders and frequent hosts, party games are an essential tool. It’s always good to have some fun, easy-to-learn party games to liven up a room and help folks get to know each other.  

    There are lots of kinds of games: abstract (Backgammon, Chess), strategy (Monopoly, Catan), cooperative (Pandemic, Betrayal), and more. But party games are a special category of board and card games that encourage social interaction. They generally have easy setups and simple rules, and they can accommodate large groups of people. Rounds go quickly, so it’s easy for players to jump in and out. 

    When hosting a game night for the first time or with many first-time players, it’s best to offer no more than 2-3 games at a time. Offer a brief description of each game and then have the group decide which they want to try first. Play a round or two, and then check in – do folks want to keep going, or try something new? 

    This guide contains three kinds of Jewish party games: games that are inherently Jewish, games that can be made Jewish with a few tweaks, and Hebrew-language games. Talk to your JLS/JE about getting Jewish Culture JIO funding to cover purchases and printing. 

    Jewish Party Games
    • Apples to Apples: Jewish Edition
      • Players each submit a card that best fits the category, and take turns playing judge. 
    • Taboo: Jewish Edition 
      • Get your teammates to guess a particular word, but some clues are off limits! For example, can you get your teammates to say “shabbat” without using the words “friday” “sunset” “challah” or “seven”? 
      • Or, play it in Hebrew! (see below) 
    • The Chosen One 
      • Each round a different player draws a Question Card and the other players share their best Answer Card. The judge chooses their favorite card, and the first person to collect 7 cards wins. 
    • Jewish Card Revoked 
      • Players read a card with subjective questions about Jewish culture, speed-debate, and then vote on their favorite answer. Win points for being in the majority. 
    • Quick Shtick 
      • Can you name a Jewish food starting with “K”? A biblical character whose name starts with “R”? A Parsha beginning with the letter “B”? Compete to answer as quickly as possible before your opponent does. 
    Making Party Games Jewish
    • Just One 
      • A cooperative game in which the goal each round is to get one player to guess a mystery word based on the clues given by everyone else. 
      • How to make it Jewish: Use these Jewish prompts 
    • Poetry for Neanderthals 
      • Get your team to guess the word while only using single syllables. “The game where you speak good or get hit with stick.” 
      • How to make it Jewish: Use these Jewish prompts 
    • Telestrations 
      • Like the game of Telephone or Whisper-Down-the-Lane, but with drawing and guessing what your friends have drawn. 
      • How to make it Jewish: Use these Jewish prompts 
    • The Chameleon 
      • Each player receives a card that tells them if they are the Chameleon or hunting the Chameleon. Two dice are rolled and this gives everyone (except the Chameleon) the coordinates to a specific word on a Topic Card – this is the Secret Word for the round. Each player must now say a word relating to the Secret Word, good enough to tell others you know it but not so obvious the Chameleon can figure it out. 
      • How to make it Jewish: Use these Jewish clue boards 
    • Wavelength 
      • A social guessing game in which two teams compete to read each other’s minds. Teams take turns rotating a dial to where they think a hidden bullseye is located on a spectrum. One of the players on your team — the Psychic — knows exactly where the bullseye is, and provide a clues that is conceptually where the bullseye is located between two binaries. For example, if the card this round is OVERRATED-UNDERRATED and the bullseye is slightly to the “overrated” side of the center, the Psychic needs to say something just a little overrated. 
      • How to make it Jewish: Give Jewish clues or use Jewish binaries 
    • Wits & Wagers 
      • Not a trivia buff? It doesn’t matter! In Wits & Wagers, each player writes a guess to a question such as “In what year did the bikini swimsuit makes its first appearance?” or “How many feet wide is an NFL football field?” and places it face-up on the betting mat. Think you know the answer? Bet on your guess. Think you know who the experts are? Bet on their guess. The closest answer pays out according to the odds on the betting mat.  
      • How to make it Jewish: Use these trivia questions 
    • Concept 
      • Without talking, use images alone to get teammates to guess a word. Can be played competitively, but just as fun to play cooperatively. 
      • How to make it Jewish: Use these Jewish prompts 
    • Codenames 
      • Lay out 25 cards, each bearing a single word. The spymasters take turns  trying to use single-word clues to get their teammates to guess as many of their words as possible.  
      • How to make it Jewish: Use these Jewish code name boards or play it in Hebrew! (see below) 
    Hebrew Board Games