ABananagrams and backgammon tournament was recently held at the home of Claire Cohen, to raise money for Yad Eliezer. Nissim Alouf, one of the organizers of the tournament, spoke of the importance of Yad Eliezer, saying, “Yad Eliezer is a tremendous and awesome organization that feeds the hungry in Israel in an anonymous way where the people don’t feel like they’re getting a hand out and the kids don’t realize their parents are poor. It basically instills confidence in their lives, and they’re not wondering where their next meal will come from.” David Cohen added, “Yad Eliezer is a great organization which feeds a lot of people, and Baruch Hashem, from all the money we raised at the tournament we can continue feeding our brothers in Israel.”
Yad Eliezer is the largest anti-hunger agency in Israel. It began around 1980 in the kitchen of the Weisel family in Jerusalem. They prepared a food basket for a neighbor who could not feed her children, and were soon delivering monthly food baskets to hungry families. Their website states that Yad Eliezer has now grown to encompass 15 primary economic and social service programs that impact tens of thousands of individuals.
Yad Eliezer’s cadre of 10,000 volunteers enables the organization to maintain limited overhead and expenses. Indeed, 95% of funds raised go directly to needy families.
Bananagrams is a simple game to learn. It’s similar to Scrabble, but instead of one big board, each player makes their own mini board, forming words out of their tiles that connect to each other, until all the tiles are used up. The first one to finish their tiles wins the game.
It was a perfect day for a Bananagrams tournament. It was raining outside (luckily, a tent was set up which saved the day), and a beach day was out of the question, so everyone was thrilled to have somewhere to go. The competition was very fierce—some people started practicing three weeks in advance, playing all Shabbat in order to prepare for the tournament. The level of concentration surprised Bellene Sutton. “I practiced all Shabbat,” she said, “but I still didn’t expect the competition to be this intense!”
All around the event, the sounds of playful arguments and shouting could be heard. “I’ve never played such a stressful, but at the same time fun, game in my life,” said Danielle Tawil. Arguments were taking place all over, but it was all in good fun.
In the end, Sylvia Benun emerged victorious. She was able to out-spell everyone, and took home the first place prize. Joe Braha took home first place in the backgammon tournament, which may not have been as intense, but the competition was still stiff.
There was also a bake sale and a Chinese Auction, the highlights of which were a fishing lesson with Murray Mizrahi, whose box was surprisingly filled to capacity, and a Trek bicycle.
The event turned out to be a huge success, raising money for a great cause, while being fun at the same time. Bananagrams might turn out to be a fad—one abandoned by next summer—but we are all looking forward to the next fun, unique game to help fill our rainy days.
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Annie Lubin graduated from the Yeshivah of Flatbush High School and is now studying in Brooklyn College as a journalism major.
