It is also appealing because the game is easy to learn, and unlike many playground sports, gaga is not typically dominated by children with natural athletic ability.

“They can play six matches and have six different winners,” said Josh Fagel, 15, a Decathlon camp junior counselor from San Carlos, Calif.

Josh played gaga for years at Jewish summer camps. When he reported for work at sports camp last month, he said, he was shocked to see the newly built gaga pit. Now, he said, his group of rising third graders cannot seem to pack enough gaga into their day.

Josh said he feels proud of gaga’s Jewish roots, and even a bit wistful to see the game gaining wider acceptance. “This was the one sport that was special to Jewish camps, but at the same time I think it’s great that it’s so popular.”

Though gaga is believed to have originated in Israel, it does not seem to have had a resurgence there like the game’s growth in the United States. Aviv Alberts of Foster City, Calif., remembers playing the game in the streets of Tel Aviv when she was a child. Though her children continue to play at their Jewish day school in California, the children she knows back in Israel do not. “I think they are too busy with their iPads,” she said.

As in any good playground game, house rules vary. Dr. Mann’s 2008 article about gaga in the journal Camp Business provides what is considered the closest thing there is to an official set of gaga rules.