Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
BORN AND raised in Minneapolis, Dr. Steven Heifetz learned he had family history from Hurley and began a journey uncovering not only his family's Jewish history, but also the history of a large Jewish community once found on the Gogebic Range. Here he speaks to a group at the Iron County Historical Museum Saturday as part of "The Way We Worked" visiting exhibit.
HURLEY-Cardiologist Dr. Steven Heifetz from Minneapolis spoke Saturday afternoon at the Iron County Historical Museum as part of "The Way We Worked" traveling exhibit activities.
Heifetz gave a presentation on the Jewish history here in the Gogebic Range based on his personal journey in learning about his family's history.
His research and interest began when his wife asked him for his family's history for their children's bar mitzvah. He came to find out that on his mother's side of the family they didn't know their genealogy.
The pursuit to find his family history in Hurley began when he asked his Aunt Esther how old she was. Her response was that she was from Hurley and the courthouse burned down and all her records are now gone, so she doesn't know how old she is.
So his search began on a locla genealogy and progressed with many trips to the area over the next decade, hunting down his family's history in the area.
And as a result of his searching, he began to piece together a broader history of the Jewish community here and their immigration to Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula.
The very first time Heifetz visited Hurley, he and his family stopped at the Sharey Zedek cemetery within the first few minutes of the trip.
They were drawn to two tall monuments near the gate and came to find out that the one was Heifetz' great-grandmother, Fagel Gitl (Fanny) Rein.
From that moment, Heifetz was off on a great journey connecting the dots for his family and uncovering the history of the Sharey Zedek synagogue, including uncovering the three Torahs originally with the synagogue.
During one of his many trips to Hurley and Ironwood he was allowed to search in a shed of the Rovelsky family. Inside he found a box that matched the dimensions of the Lost Ark of Covenant and joked that he had finally found the Lost Ark here in Ironwood.
Heifetz had many moments like this in his presentation where he had the attendees laughing out loud. He took questions about the history he has uncovered over the years.
