Early life
Joseph (Iosif) Ruvimovich Heifetz was born into a Jewish family in Vilna in the Russian Empire (present-day Vilnius, Lithuania). According to his birth register, he was born on 2 February [O.S. 20 January] 1901, although the year has been disputed. A booklet accompanying the 46th volume of The Heifetz Collection (1994) says he was born in 1900, explaining that "Heifetz's mother advanced his birth date one year when no one was looking", though no other reliable sources confirm that his mother changed her son's age.
According to family legend, his paternal grandfather, Ilya Heifetz, was born around 1830 and worked as a teacher (melamed) at a Jewish boys' school (cheder). He lived in Polotsk in Vitebsk Governorate with his family. By the end of the 19th century, Polotsk was the center of an uyezd (district) and had a population of about 20,000, of whom 62% were Jewish. Additional details about Ilya appear on a 1943 document belonging to his son Natan, which notes, "Father: worker (tailor), mother: homemaker".
His father, Reuven (Ruvin) Heifetz, was born on 3 April [O.S. 22 March] 1873, in either Novaya Aleksandriya or Polotsk. He moved from Polotsk to Vilna around 1899. He was a local violin teacher and served as the concertmaster of the Vilna Theatre Orchestra for one season before it closed down. When Jascha was an infant, his father conducted a series of tests to observe how his son reacted to his violin playing. This convinced him that Jascha had exceptional musical potential. Before Jascha turned two, his father purchased a small violin for him and began teaching him basic violin techniques, including bowing and simple fingering.
In 1906, at the age of five, Heifetz began attending the local music school in Vilna, where he studied under Ilya Malkin. He was recognized as a child prodigy and made his public debut at the age of seven in Kovno (present-day Kaunas, Lithuania), performing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. In 1910, he joined the violin class of Ionnes Nalbandian at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory and later studied for six years with the renowned violin teacher Leopold Auer. Heifetz's education under Auer emphasized a rigorous, technical approach that prioritized scales, a clear sound, and mental discipline over natural talent. This experience informed Heifetz's austere performance style.
He played in Germany and Scandinavia and met Fritz Kreisler for the first time in a Berlin private house, in a "private press matinee on May 20, 1912. The home was that of Arthur Abell, the pre-eminent Berlin music critic for the American magazine, Musical Courier. Among other noted violinists in attendance was Fritz Kreisler. After the 12-year-old Heifetz performed the Mendelssohn violin concerto, Abell reported that Kreisler said to all present, 'We may as well break our fiddles across our knees.'"
Heifetz visited much of Europe while still in his teens. In April 1911, he performed in an outdoor concert in Saint Petersburg before 25,000 spectators; there was such a reaction that police officers needed to protect the young violinist after the concert. In 1914, he performed with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Arthur Nikisch. The conductor said he had never heard such an excellent violinist.
