Born in Tunis in 1881, Jacques Véhel belonged to a branch of the Lévy family that had settled in Tunisia in the early nineteenth century and originally came from Brody (Galicia). His elder brother, Simah (1868–1922) was one of the first Tunisian publicists. Another brother, Isaac, who was known as Zriki (1874–1930), was the director of the Imprimerie Finzi.

Jacques Véhel was educated at the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) school on the Rue Malta-Sghira in Tunis, and had from a very young age a vocation for literature. At only twelve, he founded Le Cid, a small weekly newspaper that…