 Kvitlech cards | |
| Origin | Galician Jews |
|---|---|
| Release date | Late 18th or 19th century |
| Players | 5+[1] |
| Cards | 24 |
| Related games | |
| Twenty-One, Pontoon, Dreidel | |
Kvitlech (Yiddish: קוויטלעך, lit. 'notes', 'slips')[note 1] is a card game similar to Twenty-One played in some Ashkenazi Jewish homes during the Hanukkah season.
The game and deck were created by Hassidic Jews living in Galicia during the late 18th or 19th century.[2] Most packs used to play the game consist of 24 cards with identical pairs numbered from 1 to 12. The pack may have originated from Hexenspiel decks by stripping them of picture cards so as to avoid idolatry.[3] Jews did not use popular playing cards because of the crosses and other Christian symbols found on them, using instead an (often handmade) deck of cards called kvitlekh, lamed-alefniks (lit. 'thirty-oners'), klein Shas (lit. 'small Talmud'), or tilliml (lit. 'small Book of Psalms').[4] The cards were decorated with Hebrew numerals and common objects such as teapots, feathers, and sometimes portraits of biblical heroes.[5] Piatnik & Söhne of Vienna was the largest producer of these cards during the 19th and 20th centuries which helped spread the game among Jews living in Austria-Hungary and their North American diaspora.
