The Tel Aviv Scrabble® Club

The Tel-Aviv Scrabble Club is not just statistics, divisions and Scrabble boards, but a group of wonderful people who get together every week to enjoy their favourite pastime.

The following table includes a few details about some of our members. To play our members online, check out ISC (in the "Links" section):

For more on our members, check out the following:
Agi Brener | Amos Fabian | Chaya Amir | Evan Cohen | Gila Blits | Gusta Gross | Liliane Servier | Ma'or Eichler | Maxine Tsvaigrach | Michelle Moshelian | Omri Rosenkrantz | Rina Navott | Viva Press

Born in South Africa, Evan made Aliyah in 1977 and has been living in Israel ever since. Evan lectures in the Linguistics departments at Tel Aviv University, Bar Ilan University and the Open University. At an early age, Evan started playing social Scrabble with his grandmother and first played in a Scrabble club (the Herzliya Scrabble Club) in 1988. He has been playing competitive Scrabble ever since. Winning the National Championships in 1991, Evan was Israel’s representative in the First World Championships held in London, where he finished 12th. In 1993, he and Paloma Raychbart represented Israel in the Second World Championships in New York. In 2005, Evan and Paloma once again held the Israeli flag in the World Championships in London. Since 1997, Evan has organised a string of Scrabble-by-the-Sea and Tel-Aviv Open tournaments. Returning to active tournament play in 2003, Evan won the Sam Orbaum Memorial Scrabble tournaments three consecutive times - in 2004, 2005 and 2007, and won the Nationals in 2005. In late 1998, Evan founded the Tel-Aviv Scrabble Club.

I was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, from Hungarian immigrants. I used to play Scrabble with my very good friends, but of course this was in Spanish. I came on Aliyah with my husband and 2 daughters in 1979. A couple of years later (1983) I saw an ad in the Jerusalem Post: "Scrabble Players are organizing the first tournament.....". I have a degree in TESL (teaching of English as a second language), but nevertheless, I had NEVER played in English. I answered the ad but in the end, I did not participate as I didn't know anybody at all, I didn't know there was a special dictionary or clubs, etc. Some 6 months later I got a letter (by regular mail) stating something like: "Due to the big success.. we are having our 2nd tournament...". It was at the Kineret and I decided I should find out something about it. I phoned the hotel and they gave me Sam's phone number. The rest is history. I remember that I got the 2 letter word list (of which there were 86 at the time) and I studied them during my bus trip. Of course, I played in the Casual division and came 5th. I also got a prize (a book with the meanings of street names in Israel). I played in the TLV club, later in Herzliya and Ra’anana and I became a member in this lovely club run by Evan in 2004. I now have two wonderful daughters and, in addition, 5 wonderful grandchildren (aged 2 to 16) – 3 from one daughter and 2 from the other. I love Scrabble and many kinds of board games and sports.

Amos made Aliyah from California in 1973, at the tender age of 7. After his military duty, he returned to the USA to study journalism. After reporting for a number of newspapers in California and Georgia, he returned to Israel, much to the delight of his family. He works at the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce & Industry. Amos joined the Tel-Aviv Scrabble Club sometime in 1998, 26.11. 98 to be exact.

Chaya Weisgal-Amir once won a Scrabble tournament and a free week-end at the Galei Kinneret and has been trying, unsuccessfully, for the last twenty years to match that achievement. When she is not playing Freecell, she uses her computer to edit books and articles for Israeli academics who failed their matric exams in English. Chaya is one of the founding members of the Tel-Aviv Scrabble club.

Gila came on Aliya from the UK (Liverpool) in 1963, and spent 23 years on a kibbutz. Since 1986, she has lived in Tel-Aviv and works at home as a free-lance translator. She has three children and umpteen grandchildren. Originally a social Scrabbler, Gila was introduced to "real" Scrabble at the first Dead Sea tournament and was hooked. Gila is one of the founding members of the Tel-Aviv Scrabble club.

Gusta was born in Kuty (Poland) and then lived in Danzig. In May, 1939, she was sent to England with a "Kindertransport". Gusta lived in York till the beginning of 1942, when she moved to London. Gusta came to Israel in June, 1948 and has been living here ever since. Gusta has a son and a daughter and five grandchildren (see picture). In February 2000, a friend of Gusta's in Jerusalem told her about the Tel-Aviv Scrabble Club. Gusta phoned Evan and has been attending every week since then. 

Liliane was born in Egypt, made Aliyah in 1945 and has been living in Israel ever since, except for various missions in Europe between 1955 and 1970. She works as a French free-lance translator. Liliane started playing social Scrabble in French with friends in 1970 and decided to try her hand in English at the June 1983 National Scrabble Tournament in Tiberias. Immediately after, Liliane joined the Tel-Aviv Club and has been playing ever since in the various Tel-Aviv, Tsahala and Herzliya clubs. Liliane won two national tournaments (Dead Sea) in 1986 and 1987 and was the runner up in the 2003 National Championships (above picture...). 
Click here to email Liliane.
If you'd like to read this week's Poem of the week written by Liliane, click here.

Ma'or began playing club Scrabble at the age of ten after having played Scrabble at home for somewhat less than a decade. Ma'or's main accomplishments are successfully remaining alive since 1977 and calculating the square root of 50 to 10 digits in his head on a long bus ride home one night from the Scrabble club. Ma'or, who has an M.A. in Biophysics, is one of the country's top players, coming in second in the National tournament at the Dead Sea in 2000. Ma'or represented Israel in the World Championships in 2001.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Maxine made Aliyah in 1977 and has been living, generally quite happily, in Israel ever since. She is an English teacher and coordinator at a high school in Ramat HaSharon. She lives in Tel-Aviv with her husband, three daughters and magnificent, pampered half-Persian cat who insists on plopping herself on the board every time she (Maxine) plays Scrabble. Maxine was a Scrabble addict in college but after coming to Israel hardly played. In September 2000, seeing the ad for the Tel-Aviv Scrabble Club and looking forward to all the free time she was about to have on her sabbatical, she gave Evan a call. She has been coming regularly ever since. Her most noteworthy Scrabble accomplishment is the word JUNKYARD for 293 points. Alas, that was many, many years ago. However, in June 2001, she played three bingos in a row on her first three plays and is rather proud of that. 

Michelle made Aliyah from England in 1997 and now works as a journalist in the diamond industry. Michelle used to play Scrabble with her family in London, and has been known to bring her parents to the Scrabble club with her when they have come to visit. Michelle and Itzik were married in February 2002. Since Itzik's mother tongue isn't English, he won't play with Michelle. Luckily there is the Tel Aviv Scrabble Club every Thursday!

Born in Canada to Israeli parents, Omri came to Israel at the tender age of 2. Omri started off his Scrabble career as an organiser, rather than a player, as the assistant director in the Third Scrabble-by-the-Sea. Omri first played a handful of games during Season #5 though only started attending regularly in Season #7 in which he even qualified for the playoffs. Whenever the Maccabi Tel-Aviv Basketball team doesn't play on a Thursday night, Omri is sure to show up for his three games!

Rina came to Israel (then Palestine) from Poland at the beginning of World War 2, barely escaping the Holocaust, with her parents and brother. Raised at the Ben-Shemen children's farm for the first 3 years, Rina concluded her high-school education in Tel-Aviv in 1948, when she joined the Israeli Air Force and served as a code and cypher operator during the War of Independence. For the following 12 years, Rina worked in "El-Al" Israel Airlines as a ground hostess and during the next 14 years, in South African Airways as the Tel-Aviv office secretary. Rina occasionally played Scrabble with friends and was looking for a Scrabble club, which she found through the Tel-Aviv branch of the A.A.C.I. and joined in September 1999. Rina has been playing at the Tel-Aviv Scrabble club ever since.