Jewish Women, Citizenship, and Belonging in Progressive America

Cecilia Razovsky

1926

Many organizations—public and private—are eager to help you prepare yourself for citizenship. The Public Schools, the settlements and neighborhood houses near your home, all have day and evening classes to which they invite you. Go to them. If you have little children whom you cannot leave at home, take them with you; they will be cared for in…

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Many immigrants who qualified for naturalization never pursued it. The process was often complicated—requiring documents, witnesses, and hearings—and could feel unnecessary if daily life wasn’t affected by the lack of citizenship. Yet citizenship brought clear benefits, from voting rights to legal protections. Progressive Jewish organizations like the National Council of Jewish Women (founded in 1893) argued that naturalization was essential to full civic belonging. Cecilia Razovsky, an American-born Jewish social worker, encouraged immigrant women to find pride and purpose in becoming citizens—a belief she carried into her later advocacy for refugees, affirming that citizenship was both precious and empowering.

Discussion Questions

Think about the word useful. What does it communicate about the purpose of citizenship beyond one’s own personal status?
How did American women’s citizenship rights transform in the 1920s? How might these changes have motivated middle-class reformers to encourage immigrant women to seek citizenship?
This text, Horace Kallen’s case for cultural pluralism, and the Yiddish political cartoon of the Statue of Liberty all can be understood as reactions to immigration restriction. Compare the responses. What accounts for their differences?

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Jewish Women, Citizenship, and Belonging in Progressive America

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