Israeli Mah-Jongg Association

Assessment

Confidence

catalogued listed in a variant catalogue with tile counts and hand sizes, but no rules text verified

Evidence

corroborated two or more independent sources agree on the facts that define this variant

Cross-comparison

What each source was read to say, set side by side. The numbers are the sources above.

• [1] SEARCHED AND NOT FOUND: a targeted search for the Israeli Mah-Jongg Association's own rules, in English and in Hebrew (איגוד המהג'ונג הישראלי), returned nothing about the association, its rules, tiles or scoring. Results were dominated by American mahjong and general Jewish-mahjong material, which is a different subject. No second source for this node was located, and the association's own site was not found
• [1] The entry gives Books: none and no website; the variant list further down repeats 'Israeli Mah-Jongg Association No book.'
• [1] Wayback captures show the entry first appearing between 12 August and 20 October 2004. It read 'Payment to winner only' and gave the website www.mjong.tk until at least February 2005. By May 2006 the payout read 'all players', and the website line stayed until at least the 2014 captures
• [2] The site of אגודת המא-ג'ונג הישראלית calls itself the first Israeli site for mah-jong, founded by Gennady Arkhangorodsky. It links Hebrew rules, an English translation, a history page, a blog of events and a forum, and takes requests for organised games and card sets by email. The page is identical in every capture from February 2005 to December 2007, and the host answered with a redirect by February 2008
• [3] Other rules: 20 seconds to claim a discard, a 300-point penalty for a false Mah-Jongg, drawn hands unscored and replayed, and the round wind passing counter-clockwise in the 16-round game
• [6] A Hebrew history compiled from web sources. It covers origin theories, Babcock, the 1920s American craze and the 1924 standardisation committee, and closes with the NMJL (founded in New York in 1937) and the Wright-Patterson officers' club (first rulebook 1963) as the two bodies keeping the game alive
• [4] Posts run from May to December 2004. The first workshop, set for 2 June 2004 opposite Super Sapir in neighbourhood Yud-Alef in Be'er Sheva, was cancelled because too few people signed up. Card sets were offered at 45 shekels including postage if enough people were interested. The last post, of 25 December 2004, announces that the site now met web standards. Blogger answered 404 'blog has been removed' on 2026-10-09
• [7] Two boards, one for arranging games and one for explanations and rules, had 0 posts and 2 registered users on 30 October 2004. The July 2006 capture of the host is a parked-domain page
• [5] The article calls the association's rules 'the Israeli version'. In it the round wind moves counter-clockwise, a ready hand is called 'standing' and may wait on only one kind of tile, and a drawn hand is not scored. The external links name the site of אגודת המא-ג'ונג הישראלית at ballz.ababa.net/mjil2, a mirror captured from November 2005 to February 2006
• [8] The third annual Modi'in tournament, run by the Modi'in Mahj Mavens with ESRA, drew 23 women from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Rehovot, Shoham and elsewhere
• [9] A friendly points-only fundraiser in Rehovot on 20 June 2021, with tournament rules for three-player tables. Betting was not allowed

Reading it

The node is now well sourced. The Israeli Mah-Jongg Association (אגודת המא-ג'ונג הישראלית) was a web initiative founded in spring 2004 in Be'er Sheva by Gennady Arkhangorodsky. Its site at mjil2.port5.com, reached through www.mjong.tk (the address Sloperama listed from 2004 to at least 2014), published Hebrew rules and an English translation titled for 'Kards'. Those rules, independent of the chart's source, confirm Sloperama's line: 144 pieces sold as paper cards, flowers melded and replaced on receipt, 13 in hand and out on 14, and a basic score followed by additions of a quarter to one and a half times it, with special hands worth 100 to 6000. It is a Chinese Classical-style game with no jokers, card or Charleston, unrelated to the NMJL. The sources differ on payment. Sloperama said winner only in 2004-2005 and all players from 2006, while the rules have everyone score and each loser pay the winner 8. Activity never took off: the first workshop was cancelled, the forum had no posts, and the sites were gone by 2008, so the body is not active. Hebrew Wikipedia's 'Israeli version' is probably by the founder. Still wanted: Israeli press or library records, which the National Library's challenge kept out of reach.

Looked for, not found

• Tournament rules None exist for this variant: the association's blog records only a first workshop, cancelled in June 2004, and its forum had no posts. The 2021 Israeli Mahjong League tournament (baker-2021-mahjong-beer-sheva) played American mah jongg, a different game
• Law Not looked for in statute databases: this was a points-scored club game in Israel in 2004-2007, no source read mentions licensing or gambling law, and the law-en databases cover Asian jurisdictions where it was not played
• Rulebook No published book: Sloperama's entry has said 'Books: none' since 2004, and the association published its rules only as PDFs on its site. The National Library of Israel catalogue, where an Israeli book would be found, answered a 403 browser challenge on 2026-10-09
• Historical Nothing beyond the association's own 2004-2005 pages, which are filed here as organisation and official-rules. Restricted web searches of Haaretz, Ynet, Maariv, the Times of Israel, the Jerusalem Post, Israel Hayom, Calcalist, Walla and Mako, and Internet Archive full text, gave nothing on the association
• Scholarship Internet Archive full-text search for the association's English name gave no hits on 2026-10-09; no scholarly index was searched, since nothing suggests the club was ever studied
• Commercial The association itself offered printed card sets for 45 shekels in August 2004 (imja-2004-blog, filed as organisation). No retailer listing was found, and app stores were not searched
• Collection No museum or library record of the association's card set was found; the National Library of Israel catalogue refused automated searching (403 challenge, 2026-10-09)

Where it was searched

Every place the search checklist names for this variant’s languages, and what each gave, including nothing. The last full pass was on 2026-10-09.

Names searched: Hebrew אגודת המא-ג'ונג הישראלית, האגודה הישראלית למא-ג'ונג, הגרסה הישראלית, מא-ג'ונג לקלפים; English Israeli Mah-Jongg Association, Mah-Jongg for Kards.