Play a board game with Micah Bloom, and a roll of the dice may land you on “Babka Avenue,” “Sukkot Gardens” or “Rosh Hashanah Railroad.” You can collect rent and build homes — or a kibbutz. And as you play, trivia cards may require you to name the first king of Israel, explain the role of wine at a seder or identify “Jewish penicillin.”
Jewopoly is the name of the game, and 14-year-old Bloom invented this Monopoly spinoff. In the past year, he raised more than $5,000 through an online fundraising site to pay a professional game-manufacturing company to make 100 copies of his game. All profits from game sales go to the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League. About half of the games are left, stacked in the Bloom family garage and awaiting buyers.
Like regular Monopoly, players progress by trying to accumulate riches, with some hazards along the way. In Jewopoly, the game-changing “chance” cards of Monopoly are transformed into Jewish trivia questions, and Monopoly money is reconfigured into menorah bucks, each with a Star of David in a corner. You can buy a house on “Brisket Place” or “Kugel Avenue” on your way to building your real estate portfolio.
Not bad for a San Francisco teen who is the main pianist for his school’s jazz band, serves in student government and plays ice hockey.
To complete a seventh-grade social studies assignment last spring at San Francisco Day School, Bloom researched Jewish history, then prepared an informational slideshow and hand-crafted a board game using poster board and markers.
“I wanted to educate my class about Judaism — show my culture off a bit — and dive deeper into my roots,” he told J. “The game turned out pretty great.”
Jake Sproull, Bloom’s former social studies teacher, agrees.
“The game was organically grown and it’s still growing, and I’m thrilled for Micah, a dynamic kid,” Sproull said. “Bringing something to life outside the walls of the classroom shows a lot of leadership.” Sproull said his current seventh-graders have been inspired by Jewopoly, which “looks like a game you would buy in a store.”
The game garnered rave reviews early on, though Bloom set the praise aside. “When some relatives said I should get it professionally produced, at first I thought they were just being nice, and that taking it further wasn’t an actual thing to do,” he said.
Over time, playing with some ideas for improvements, he began to upgrade the game, using graphic design and editing platforms. Dana and Howard Bloom, Micah’s parents and the owners of grab-and-go chain Proper Food, encouraged him to dream big. When he shared the updated version at San Francisco’s Congregation Sherith Israel, the family’s synagogue, Rich Weissman was among the members who were impressed.
“I thought it was fantastic,” said Weissman, “and I asked how I could help.” A marketing expert, he is also head of leadership for the Ibis Group Institute, a volunteer think tank that works with Democrats in Congress and the director of the Richard Norris Weissman Charitable Fund.
Weissman instructed Bloom on creating a business plan. The mentoring reinvigorated Bloom.
“Rich really liked my idea for the game, and this was praise from someone who was not a relative,” Bloom said. “As I had no background in board game manufacturing, Rich helped me learn about next steps.”
Weissman said that Bloom did all the work. “He is an incredible entrepreneur, a wonderfully nice kid and the kind of young person the Jewish community needs,” Weissman said. “What a gift he’s giving us.”
Originally, Bloom planned to buy 20 copies of the game to give to relatives and close friends, but a single game cost $70. The more he ordered, the lower the price per game. He bought one to use as a prototype, and then set up a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for a bulk order.
“As I transitioned to a scalable business model, I made some alterations to Jewopoly,” Bloom said. “Not everybody would know the answers to some of the history questions, so I added more material on Jewish culture, and then I devised different scoring for different levels of difficulty.”
Along the way, Bloom had to deal with copyright issues from Hasbro, which owns Monopoly, including the issue of writing “GO” on the square where the game begins. The “Free Parking” square was also a problem. He dealt with it by transliterating “GO” into Hebrew letters and changing “Free Parking,” the square where a player takes a break, to “Shabbat Shalom.”
For the original version, Bloom used a 3D printer to make game pieces that included a challah, a Magen David, a menorah and a shofar. “But later it made sense to go with game pieces that a manufacturer would already have,” he said.
So how does a teen locate a board game manufacturer? “I Googled them, and then combed through a lot of articles,” Bloom said. “I went with The Game Crafter because they have great software.”
Feedback has been positive, and now Bloom is expanding his marketing campaign. You can buy Jewopoly at his website for $45.18. (That’s 2.5 times $18, plus 18 cents.)
“People love the game, and I’ve heard from some people who play with three generations,” he said. “That’s exactly what the game is all about — connections among kids, their parents and the older relatives.”