Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Steven Heifetz stands in front of an exhibit dedicated to the Jewish community that existed in Hurley and Ironwood until 1940, which is housed at the Iron County Historical Museum. Heifetz will give a presentation on the area's Jewish Community Saturday at the museum.
HURLEY - Steven Heifetz, the great-grandson of a long-time rabbi for the Hurley and Ironwood Jewish communities, will be presenting the information he has gathered regarding the Gogebic Range's Jewish heritage at the Iron County Historical Museum on Saturday.
The presentation, which begins at 2 p.m., is one of the many events dealing with the area's history that is being held in connection with the Smithsonian's "The Way We Worked" exhibit.
Heifetz will talk about the Jewish community that began to come to the region in the late 1800s, including what brought them here and the various occupations they took up once they arrived.
Heifetz, who lives in the Minneapolis area, became interested in the area's Jewish history about 10 years ago he said, as he attempted to arrange a family gathering.
"It was a family event ... we invited all the living relatives and my wife said 'well we need to know who is related to who so we know which tables to put them at.'" Heifetz explained that after digging into his genealogy, he moved onto exploring his ancestors.
It was then he discovered his connection to Hurley and his great-grandfather's status as the longest tenured rabbi in the local community's existence.
Heifetz said that in 1920, the local synagogue had 300 members.
The synagogue started in 1892 in Hurley before moving to Ironwood in 1940 and closed around 1968, Heifetz said. His grandfather served as rabbi from 1892 to 1921, Heifetz said, after which a series of rabbis served the community.
Many Jews came to the region in the late 1800s to escape persecution in Europe and arrived in the area as communities such as Ironwood and Bessemer were beginning to be founded, according to Heifetz. Once here, many became merchants, selling various goods and services.
In addition to the presentation, Heifetz will participate in a special ceremony at 10 a.m. on Sunday in the Sharey Zedek Cemetery - across from the Iron County Courthouse - where a number of old Jewish religious texts will be buried. Heifetz explained that Jewish tradition forbids that religious documents be thrown away and must they be buried.
A number of religious texts that had been put into storage by the area's Jewish community were discovered in a shed two years ago and will be buried during the ceremony, as dictated by custom.
