Breaking Barriers With Backgammon
Meet Khalaf Salaymeh born and raised in east #Jerusalem. He loves an ancient and simple game, with red and black pieces, a board and dice, a game with archeological evidence that it existed in Iran 5000 years ago. Khalaf has been hooked on backgammon since he was a little boy, he has played “against” a backgammon app and against online competitors. But he prefers playing right here in Jerusalem, with real people, and he joined a growing backgammon phenomenon where Jews and Arabs play at tournaments all over the city.
I can’t decide whether you win this game by luck, skill or strategy, but Khalaf joined these tournaments (run by דאבל ירושלמי دابل مقدسي Jerusalem Double) just for the fun of it. He met new people, he networked for his business, he attended nearly every one of the 14 games, and he brought friends to join in. Khalaf prefers the human interaction over computerized ones.
The Double Yerushalmi backgammon sensation garnered loads of press coverage over the last few months. Luke Baker of Reuters wrote an inspiring piece this winter. David Horovitz, founder and editor in chief of the The Times of Israel wrote a great story about the climatic backgammon “season finale” yesterday. The father of Israel’s start-up scene, Yossi Vardi, admitted he thought the idea was insane, but is now a believer. Even the Prime Minister tweeted about it.
In all the hype surrounding this amazing initiative, I am fairly certain that no one has heard of Khalaf. I asked him how the game has impacted Jerusalem and his answer touched me. “It breaks down the fear that exists between humans beings,” he said. For that, Khalaf is #MyJLMHeroes this week. He showed up every chance he could, he came to play, with Jews, with anyone, for the fun of it.
And he promised to teach me Arabic!
Originally published at www.facebook.com.
