A New Twist On Dreidel — And Intermarriage

by Julie Wiener
Special To The Jewish Week

I’ve taken our ancestral Hebrew-adorned tops for many a spin.

But a full-fledged dreidel match, one in which competitors vie for the pot of gelt?
Let’s just say that the one time I tried it with a group of adults — back when my husband and I were 20-something, child-free and regular poker players — we were all bored well before the candles had burnt down low.

The simple parameters of take all, take half, take nothing or ante up may entertain small children like my daughters, who recently whiled away an afternoon doing the same 12-piece jigsaw puzzle over and over. But clearly dreidel is not much of an adult game.

So I was excited when I found out

about No Limit Texas Dreidel, which entrepreneur Jennie Rivlin Roberts and her non-Jewish husband Webb Roberts dreamed up three years ago as they were driving from Florida to their home in Atlanta.

Their annual Chanukah party was coming up and Rivlin Roberts, now 37, recalls saying, “There really must be a way to make dreidel more fun.”

Since the two were poker enthusiasts, they livened up the traditional Gimel-Hey-Nun-Shin with elements of “No Limit Texas Hold ’Em.”

In the resulting product, players use multiple dreidels to create their best “hand” — a combination of communal and individual spins — and are then encouraged to bet. A year after debuting a primitive version of the game at the couple’s Chanukah party, Rivlin Roberts, who had been staying home with her daughter, Isabel (now age 4), decided it had the makings of a new career for her.

To sell the game, she launched a Web store last year called Modern Tribe. Initially just a vehicle for marketing Texas Dreidel, the site, which currently sells 450 items quickly morphed into a hip online Judaica store.

Rivlin Roberts, who was raised Reform, sees Texas Dreidel as a metaphor for her marriage to her Methodist-raised-but-now-atheist husband: a merging of two cultures that involves “a lot of creative things with Judaism.”

The two are raising their daughter Jewish and recently traveled to Israel together on a group trip specifically geared toward interfaith couples. They celebrate Shabbat and other Jewish holidays, although Rivlin Roberts half-jokingly describes her personal philosophy as “Deconstructionist Judaism.”
“I don’t agree with the literal English translations of [Jewish] prayers, but they are meaningful because they’ve been said for thousands of years and link me to my past and peoplehood,” she says, explaining why at home she recites blessings in Hebrew, but then, in English, adds “a humanistic interpretation of the prayers.”

Like Texas Dreidel, Modern Tribe also reflects Rivlin Roberts’ ethos. The site avoids selling items that mix religious traditions — Rivlin Roberts recently nixed an Israeli-designed menorah that was in the shape of a Christmas tree. Its focus, instead, is on modern products that infuse Jewish traditions with new life — and on making them accessible to Jews and non-Jews alike.

“My frustration about dreidel was part of a larger frustration about Judaica,” Rivlin Roberts says in a Southern drawl, something you don’t often hear in the Brooklyn-accented world of Judaica vendors. “When we got married and registered for Judaica, there wasn’t much that we liked... In most Judaica shops, you can find a nice piece here and there, but the whole retail experience is not as good” as at other stores.
On Modern Tribe’s blog and throughout the site, Rivlin Roberts tries “to write for an audience of people who are not necessarily in the know,” she says, noting that “if you look at our product descriptions, I’ll often explain what a particular symbol is and why we do a particular thing.

“The other [Judaica] Web sites, when you go on them, even for me who’s Jewish but not Orthodox, I don’t get it sometimes. They can be intimidating. I wanted this to be welcoming and open.”

So far, the business model seems to be working. Despite the grim economy, Modern Tribe is growing, with 10,000 Texas Dreidel sets (retailing at $19.95) expected to sell this Chanukah season (up ten-fold from last year’s 1,000).

And Rivlin Roberts is pleased by the diversity of customers she’s attracted — everyone from established Jewish institutions that, with the company’s blessing, are incorporating Texas Dreidel into Chanukah fundraisers, to women with names like “Christie Lowenstein.”

Since my work-family demands currently preclude most game-playing (with the exception of Facebook Scrabble, more addiction than game), I haven’t yet had a chance to try out Texas Dreidel for myself. However, I like its creative, yet authentic, spin on Jewish tradition. I also really admire Rivlin Roberts’ positive attitude, in which diversity and innovation are welcomed rather than decried and in which intermarriage is not automatically assumed to be a problem.

For a taste of the old approach, check out the December Dilemma Chess Set. This limited edition, $270 game, according to the J. Levine Books & Judaica store Web site where it is sold, pits “the Jews VS the Christians! Chanukah VS Christmas! But it’s NOT a war! It’s only a game!”

In a phone interview, Danny Levine, the fourth-generation owner of the Midtown (and now online) Judaica emporium, tells me he personally finds intermarriage a “sad aspect of Jewish life.” Nonetheless, he describes the chess game, in which hand-painted Israeli flags, tallit-wearing men and dreidels take on Christmas trees, Santas and priests, as “good, healthy fun.”

Levine’s site touts December Dilemma Chess as a “great gift for any interfaith family.” I’m not so sure (the game seems devoid of Jewish substance and verging on offensive), although I appreciate Levine’s desire to market to a wide variety of Jews. His site offers a number of interfaith-family-oriented books, “Mixed Blessings” greeting cards marking (but not merging) Chanukah and Christmas — and even Texas Dreidel.
Which is where I’m putting my gelt.

“In The Mix” appears the third week of the month. For past columns, go to http://intermarried.wordpress.com. E-mail julie.inthemix@gmail.com.

Westchester Jewish Conference

Westchester’s Jewish Community Relations Organization