Pesach Horowitz is the mastermind behind Escape Your OWN Room. He lives in Far Rockaway, New York
I design escape room games to bring to your classrooms, parties, and camps. It’s become really popular in the quarantine and lockdown era because this is something you can do in your own house.
The first time I heard about an escape room I was enthralled. The basic concept is that you and your team are locked in a room, and you have to solve puzzles and piece together clues so you can escape before time runs out.
It’s not like we were sitting around at circle time discussing our future careers: “Policeman,” “Fireman,” “Rosh yeshivah,” “Escape room guy.” Five years ago, my wife and I did an escape room in Manhattan on a whim. We lost — we didn’t get out in time — but I really enjoyed the whole thing, and on the way back, I was mentally reviewing the clues. I decided it would be fun to make such a game, so I came up with a bunch of clues and pieced it together with random boxes and locks for a small Chanukah party at my in-laws.
Several years later, I substituted a seventh-grade class for a week. After barely surviving the first few days, I decided to do things my style: I taught the boys about Tu B’Shevat, followed by an escape room based on the lesson. It was a hit, so I did more games for classes and family. People were pushing me to make a business out of this, but I refused — I’m normal and this is a weird thing to do. A year ago, I agreed to do a staff night for a local Bais Yaakov. I spent a night roaming the building looking for ideas — I’m probably the first person to read the dedication plaque in the front hall — and I created an escape room with clues custom-made for that school. Then a teacher who played wanted to book me for an anniversary party the next week, and the father at that party wanted me for a class reunion a few nights later, and so on.
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