«The Jewish Gymnastics Club Basel was a melting pot»
Claude Levy and Guy Rueff on the Jewish sports movement
In 2020, the Jewish Museum of Switzerland received 21 objects from the dissolved Swiss Sports Museum, including numerous objects from the Jüdischer Turnverein (JTV) Basel (Jewish Gymnastics Club Basel), founded in 1914. Historian Barbara Häne interviewed Claude Levy, president from 1981 to 1988, and his successor, Guy Rueff, president since 1988, about history of the association and the significance of its badges, flags, and wall plates.
Barbara Häne: Dear Mr. Levy, dear Mr. Rueff, how did the Jewish gymnastics club come to be founded?
Guy Rueff: Founding a Jewish gymnastics club helped to forge a sense of identity and provided an opportunity to be ‹among one’s own kind›. The JTV was a melting pot: it brought together Jewish men and women from all walks of life, and every Jewish person was welcomed, regardless of their background.
Claude Levy: At a time when Eastern European Jews were unwelcome in many places, Jakob Mendelowitsch, one of the first head gymnastics instructors (from 1915), came from Eastern Europe. This was a prestigious position at the time, because the head gymnast was a person of respect. He determined the sequence of the gymnastic exercises and was responsible for registering the gymnasts at the cantonal and national gymnastics festivals. At the festivals themselves, he led his delegation.
BH: Our exhibition features a ribbon of medals with 26 gymnastics badges. How did gymnasts come to possess these badges?
CL: At gymnastics festivals and in the parades following the competitions, people used these fabric ribbons to show that they were «old hands» at gymnastics. I remember that my father, Robi Levy (president of the JTV from 1925 to 1935 and from 1942 to 1944), had such a medal ribbon hanging in our home, which he took with him to the gymnastics festivals. Every participant wore such gymnastic ribbons on these occasions. After returning from the national and cantonal gymnastics festivals, the Jewish gymnasts formed up with other Basel gymnastics clubs and marched from the train station down Freie Strasse to the market square, where the government council organised a reception and welcomed the gymnastics community.
BH: How did the gymnastics festivals go?
GR: During the interwar period, gymnastics festivals had a military focus. Participants wore white clothing and black shoes. The competitions consisted of marching and free exercises as well as athletics. The gymnastics clubs paid one fee per participant and received one gymnastics cross (festival badge) per gymnast in return.
CL: The national gymnastics festivals often lasted from Thursday to Sunday. The cantonal gymnastics association took the Shabbat into account, so that the JTV did not have to compete on Saturday.
BH: What kind of social connections did the JTV create?
CL: Important ones! One generation often succeeded the next: our fathers were also active in the JTV. The JTV consisted of various departments, a men’s and a women’s section, a youth and a girls’ section. In its early days, the JTV organised major social events. In the 1930s, 700 to 800 people from Basel, Zurich and Alsace came to the JTV balls. Young men and women met there. Such events often led to later weddings. The balls were initially held at the Mustermesse Basel, and later, when the number of guests declined, at the Stadtcasino.
BH: Our collection includes various medals and wall plates. What did they represent? And why does the wall plate (JMS 1942.3) of the Jewish gymnastics club depict Basler Münster of all places?
GR: It’s interesting that Basler Münster is depicted on the wall plate. It was a gift from the Jewish men’s section to the JTV for its 70th anniversary. Perhaps there were practical reasons for choosing this image, for example, because there was only a limited selection of motifs to choose from, including the basilisk or, as in this case, Basler Münster. The JTV apparently had no objection to the Christian symbolism.
CL: The flag of the JTV, designed by Berthe Braunschweig in 1927 and bearing the inscription «Tifereth Bachurim Kauchom» (The youth’s adornment is their strength) in Hebrew letters, was arguably the most significant. It was carried in public through the city at all JTV competitions and during the parades following the gymnastics festivals, which was by no means a matter of course, particularly with the rise of the frontist movement in Switzerland in the 1930s. Unfortunately, the flag has disappeared since it was exhibited at the Swiss Sports Museum in the 1990s.
BH: I really hope the flag turns up again! Thank you very much for the information about the history of the JTV and its properties.
verfasst am 28.04.2026
