Morris Heifetz was suggested to me [interviewer Sara Leuchter] as an interview prospect in September, 1978, by David Ottenstein, president of the Beth Israel Center, Madison, Wisconsin. At that time, I was processing the manuscripts collection of the Beth Israel Center, and needed to speak with a member of the Madison Jewish community who might recollect the early years of the congregation, then known as Agudas Achim. Heifetz, at age 77, had been a Madison resident since 1923, and according to Mr. Ottenstein, was one of the last surviving members of the early congregation. Ottenstein acted as the go-between to arrange the interview, which occurred at the Heifetz home on September 27, 1978, and he accompanied me there. We were met at the Heifetz residence by his granddaughter, Deena Heifetz, a University of Wisconsin student who was researching her family roots in the Madison Jewish community.
Heifetz was eager to supply the necessary information concerning the founding of Congregation Agudas Achim, but the interview was slightly hampered by his memory lapses and occasional responses in Yiddish. Little biographical information on Heifetz was ascertained from the interview; he was reluctant to speak of his employment in Madison although for many years he owned and operated a scrap metal business. He was born on June 5, 1901 in Lachwa, Minsk, then Russia but now under Polish rule. The oldest of five brothers and a sister, only he and his brother Jacob, also a Madison resident, fled Russia. The remainder of the Heifetz family perished under Hitler. Lack of money forced Heifetz to reach the United States by way of South America, where he lived for three years before arriving in Madison in 1923.
