Maccabi de Tunis

In the early twentieth century, a lot of Jewish youth in Europe and North Africa were attracted to youth movements. Many of these movements put sport and the improvement of the Jewish body at the heart of their programmes. In Tunis, Jewish youth were attracted above all to boxing, football and swimming. The Maccabi of Tunis, founded by Jacques Taïeb in 1913, was a club for Jewish youth that hosted an array of sports. Many Jews, who would later go on to become champions in their chosen sport, passed through Maccabi of Tunis. This included Victor “Young” and Benjamin Perez, Billy Smadja and Edmond Zerbib (Boxing), Zizi Léon Taïeb and Gilbert Naim (swimming), and several footballers from l’Union sportive tunisienne (UST). The boxing was headed by Kiki (Jacob) Boccara and his assistant Joe Guez. Guez later opened his own boxing gym on rue de la Loire.