Agudas Achim Founded
Scope and Content Note: Congregation Agudas Achim, Madison, Wisconsin, was founded in 1905 [actually, it was 1904]. Names of some of the first members included W. Feldman, Solomon Sweet, Abe Shapiro. Many of these members arrived in Madison in 1907-08, although Sweet may have arrived in 1905.

Synagogue Location
Scope and Content Note: Old building was at 827 Mound Street, and used to be across the street from the Madison General Hospital.

Organized as Orthodox
Scope and Content Note: Agudas Achim was not the first congregation in Madison, because The Gates of Heaven synagogue was established in 1857. Agudas Achim was organized as an orthodox congregation with a balcony for women to sit in.

Synagogue Committees
Scope and Content Note: The Sisterhood was organized in 1927, and there was no men's club. There was a Chevra Kadisha (Jewish burial society) led by A. Cohen. It was nicknamed the “J.B. Committee” (for Jewish Burial).

Arrival in Madison in 1923
Scope and Content Note: He arrived in 1923 and joined the synagogue right away, as its youngest member. He began work with the seating committee but later was named the synagogue secretary, a position he held from 1924 to 1949.

Job as Secretary
Scope and Content Note: As secretary, he had to call weekly meetings, send post cards as notices, and employ a collector of bills. When he arrived in 1923, there were about 100 members of the congregation, and during the 1930's and 1940's, the congregation expanded in number.

Synagogue Dues
Scope and Content Note: When he arrived, the dues were six dollars a year, and were soon raised to nine dollars a year. He related story of one congregant who thought it was a scandal to pay so much money for the honor of praying. Members had to pay for extra seating for the High Holidays.

Sol Levitan Lies in State
Scope and Content Note: When Sol Levitan, former state treasurer of Wisconsin, died in 1940, his body lay in state at the Capitol. He was dressed in his religious garbs.

Russian vs. German Jews
Scope and Content Note: There was no split between the Russian and German Jews in Madison because there were few German Jews. Most people did not know nationalities, nor did they care.

Madison German Jews
Scope and Content Note: When Heifetz married in 1924, a German Jew invited him to help himself to the German's furniture as a present. The Madison German Jews established the cemetery at Forest Hill which is now used by the city.

Madison Jewish Families
Scope and Content Note: When Heifetz arrived in Madison, he became friendly with the Sweets, the Sinaikos, the Meisters, the Steins, and the Shapiros.

Talmud Torah
Scope and Content Note: The Talmud Torah (religious school) of Agudas Achim paid its teachers twenty-five dollars a week. Madison butchers were usually the teachers. Curriculum included Hebrew language and Jewish history. Although there were not many girls enrolled, one of them was a Christian girl, whose mother was a member of the congregation's Ladies' Auxiliary.

German Immigration after 1920
Scope and Content Note: There were few German Jews immigrating to Madison after 1920, and the congregation did little to help them flee Nazi Germany.

Palestine
Scope and Content Note: The congregation had no special collections for Palestine, except for the Jewish National Fund's “Blue Box,” into which pennies were dropped each week.

Beth Israel Center Established
Scope and Content Note: In 1949, Rabbi Lifschitz informed the congregation that the name Agudas Achim was to be changed to Beth Israel Center after construction of a new building was completed. It was dedicated in 1950.

Madison Jewish Neighborhood
Scope and Content Note: The old triangle, on the side of Park St. which now supports low income housing units, was the Madison Jewish neighborhood. It included Washington, Milton, Mound, Brooks, and Emerald Streets. A nice neighborhood, it was comprised mainly of Jews and Italians.

The Changing Jewish Community
Scope and Content Note: Both the Jewish community and its religious practices are changing. Women can now become rabbis, and Beth Israel Center is no longer an Orthodox congregation. Men and women may sit together, although Heifetz and his wife still sit separately. Beth Israel Center is now a Conservative congregation. Younger Jews are not practicing their religion, and although they still learn Hebrew, they can no longer read from the Torah.

Congregation Adas Yeshurun
Scope and Content Note: In 1937, a group of men split from Agudas Achim to form Congregation Adas Yeshurun, which was closed in 1949. The split resulted from personal differences, and the new congregation did not have a separate balcony for women.

End of Tape 1, Side 1

Anti-Semitism
Scope and Content Note: There was little anti-Semitism in Madison when Heifetz arrived; it has always been a friendly town.

Night School
Scope and Content Note: Heifetz attended night school at the Neighborhood House on West Washington. He also spent two years at night school at Central High, where most of his classmates were immigrants, mostly Germans, Italians, and Russians.

Works as Peddler
Scope and Content Note: When he first arrived, Heifetz did not have a job, so he became a peddler, and did not make much money.

Chevra Kadisha
Scope and Content Note: The Chevra Kadisha (J. B. Committee) required an annual dues of three dollars to finance burials. Some people were too poor to pay for funerals, so the committee absorbed the cost.

Reason Heifetz Came to Madison
Scope and Content Note: Heifetz came to Madison because his wife's family, the Tempkins, had come there from Germany several years before. The Tempkins went first to Ripon to live with an uncle, but later moved to Madison. The father arrived in 1911, but his family did not immigrate until 1920.

More on Peddling
Scope and Content Note: When he was secretary of the synagogue, Heifetz had an honorable position. As a peddler, he would often go out of town. Related story of trip to visit an uncle in Beaver Dam, in which his truck broke down and he was helped by a German farmer because Heifetz knew nothing about motor vehicles.

Friendliness of Farmers
Scope and Content Note: As a peddler, he spoke German with the farmers, all of whom were very friendly. One lady in Mt. Horeb even invited him to attend a church dinner with her; he declined.

Keeping Kosher
Scope and Content Note: Madison had three kosher butchers in 1923, one of whom would get meat from Oscar Mayer's. There was also a Jewish bakery in town.

Madison Jewish Community Today
Scope and Content Note: There are many Jews in Madison today, but there are too many in the community to retain the family-like quality of Heifetz's earlier days. He doesn't know many people now because he has been ill, but people still say hello to him at the synagogue, even though he doesn't recognize them.

Tradition at Beth Israel Center
Scope and Content Note: As a young man, Heifetz blew the Shofar (ram's horn) during the High Holidays. Now his son blows the Shofar. There is still tradition in the congregation.

Relates a Story
Scope and Content Note: Heifetz tells a story concerning a Jewish woman who was wished a “Kosher Passover” by the collector. She threw him out of her house because she felt guilty that she did not keep kosher.

End of Tape 1, Side 2