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Smouha Sports Club at Alexandria, Egypt

Description

Joseph Smouha

A textile manufacturer, philanthropist, and property developer and designer, Joseph Smouha was born on January 1, 1878 in Baghdad. In 1892, he moved to Manchester, England, where he became a successful cotton manufacturer, and in 1912, he became the first President of the St. Annes-on-the-Sea congregation. During World War I, he and his family made their fortune manufacturing army clothing for the British. In 1917, Smouha came to Alexandria at the behest of the British because of his close ties to His Majesty's government and its representatives in the Middle East, as well as his position as one of Lawrence of Arabia's backers [1]. 

After the War, Smouha bought the marshes of Lake Hadara, some 700 acres of water and marshland. Beginning in 1924, the Smouha family operated a sort of privately-owned regional development authority, first draining the marshes, then paving two-lane roads. An industrial zone sprang up near the Ford assembly plant already in the area. For residents' convenience, a golf course was built, along with tennis courts and a race tract. Tracts of land were sold to private investors who wanted to build their homes in the area, which rapidly turned into the most exclusive neighborhood in Alexandria. Mr. Smouha donated much of his property to schools, hospitals and other public institutions. The new suburban garden city became known as "Smouha City". 

During WWII, Smouha's three sons served in the RAF, and Smouha contributed heavily toward the purchase of Spitfire planes, the aircraft used in the first line of attack to protect Britain's skies. Due to threats from the Germans, the British Embassy ordered Smouha to leave Egypt. The family then moved to Ramallah, Palestine for six months, before returning to Egypt once more. During his negotiations for the swamp region, the Egyptian government initially offered to give the land to Smouha for very little to no money, while Smouha insisted on paying a fair fee. This fact later served the Smouha family well after the Nasser government confiscated Smouha City after the Sinai Campaign and refused to compensate the family [2]. Joseph Smouha died on September 25, 1961 in Paris at age 83 [3]. 

Smouha Sports Club

Throughout the modern era, Alexandria's Jewish community has been active in the city's societies and clubs--including sporting clubs such as Smouha. When Joseph Smouha settled in Alexandria in 1923, he became interested in developing a wealthy suburb and transformed the 700 acres of water and marshland used as a garbage dump in Alexandria. Smouha rebuilt this land into the wealthy neighborhood of Smouha City—nicknamed by the suggestion of former Egyptian King Faud. Among schools, hospitals, and wealthy neighborhoods with certain royal residents, the Smouha Sporting Club inhabited Smouha City [1]. 

The spread of golf across Egypt began at the Smouha Sporting Club. As golf increased in popularity through the 1930s, Joseph Smouha planned the construction of an 18-hole golf course in Smouha City at the site of today’s Smouha Sporting Club. The golf course was situated within the infield of a racetrack that Smouha had previously constructed. Interestingly, this golf course is renowned for having “the best golf grass in the Arab world”, due to its location above the swampland. 

The Smouha Sporting Club grew to include tennis courts alongside the golf course and race track. The club was formally established in 1949 [2]. Joseph Smouha was the first chief executive of the sporting club, and today the club remains open under the leadership of Engineer Mohammed Faraq Amer [3]. Although the Nasser regime confiscated Smouha City from the Smouha family in 1956, Joseph Smouha had donated much of the property to public institutions and the sporting club remained open [4]. Today, the club is particularly famous for its football (soccer) teams but supports numerous individual and local sports teams [5]. Currently, Smouha Sporting Club provides sportive, social, and cultural services to over 120,000 people: marking it as one of the largest sporting clubs in Egypt. 

Recent Additions

In 2007, the architectural firm Environmental Consulting Group (ECO Group) began designing new properties for the Smouha Sporting Club [6]. Established in 1995, ECO Group is a Middle-Eastern firm of about 100 employees led by Professor Amr el shreef. Throughout its history, ECO Group has been involved in construction projects totally over $300 million USD [6]. ECO Group has developed the Smouha Sporting Club’s club house, cafeteria, swimming pools, and facilities for children [7]. 

Alexandria's Jewish Community

Alexandria's Jewish community dates back as early as the third century, and the population was reported to number in the tens or hundreds of thousands. Although Alexandria had a Jewish quarter located in the ancient Delta quarter, many of Alexandria's Jews lived throughout the city. Throughout its history, Alexandria's Jewish community was deeply tied to Palestine and drew many of its customs from that community. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Jewish community in Alexandria numbered in the hundreds, but by the end of the century the population had increased to 10,000, and during the interwar years, it climbed to 30,000. Although World War I stimulated the Egyptian economy and Jewish-Muslim relations remained good through the interwar years, the nationalization of the Egyptian economy and the Arab-Jewish conflict in Palestine eventually caused over a quarter of the Jews in Egypt to flee the country following the 1948 war. The majority of the remaining Jewish community fled after the Suez War, and by the 1980s fewer than 400 Jews remained in all of Egypt [8].

Alexandria, Egypt

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