Category:Short Game: Word Search: Cities in Israel

Short Game:

Word Search: Cities in Israel

(From Dr. Nurit Reshef’s Hebrew Funland)

There are a variety of short, arcade-like games to choose from within the Hebrew Funland created by Dr. Nurit Reshef. One of these games is entitled “Word Search: Cities in Israel” (Word Search). The intro sets it up like a trip to Israel: The player will need a “map” and a “car”, before beginning to search for the cities. Interestingly, the “map” icon takes one to the website for the Israel Ministry for Foreign Affairs (a site I would not assume most children would be interested in). The “car” is a cartoon, moving across the screen (probably more appropriate, depending on the age of the player). One is now fully prepared for the trip, and can scroll down to the word search.

There was nothing too unusual about the “Cities in Israel” word search upon first glance. One simply locates the words listed on the left-hand side of the puzzle (all, as the name of the game might suggest, are names of cities in Israel) and clicks on the letters that make up the cities within the jumbled box of letters. The only thing that could really make it more difficult to solve than a similar puzzle in another context would be unfamiliarity with the names of the cities, but searching letter-by-letter eliminates most difficulty.

This puzzle takes a generic puzzle form and applies it to its own context: Enhancing knowledge of the state of Israel. However, though I may be more familiar with some of the cities’ names than I was previously, I still have no idea where most of them are located. Reshef could just as easily have used other Hebrew words, or even nonsense words. When compared to other games on the site, this game does not teach one very much about Judaism or Israel. For example, the “Crossword Puzzle: People in the Bible” (Crossword) actually requires one to have a rather detailed knowledge of particular figures within Biblical text. Both puzzles formats are not unique to this site or religion; both take a well-known secular form of word game and attempt to incorporate specific “Jewish”-related ideas.

After solving the word search, I clicked “new puzzle” and the box emptied, asking me to “enter words below to make a new puzzle”. I found that with the given template of the word search I could insert any words I desired- related to Israel or not- and make them into a puzzle. This further removed the puzzle from a religious context. The format of the word search is fixed, but it is not one related to a particular set of beliefs or ideals, nor does Reshef’s word search teach one very much about Israeli geography.