Jewish Women, Citizenship, and Belonging in Progressive America

Cecilia Razovsky

1926

Do You Wish to Become a Useful Citizen

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 kindergartens while you attend your class. The National Council of Jewish Women have organized English and citizenship classes in every city in this country for women who wish to become citizens. If you wish information about these classes, write to:

Department of Immigrant Aide, 
The National Council of Jewish Women, 
799 Broadway, New York City

This Department will be glad to refer you to the proper classes in your city. Attend these classes regularly, even if it means that you must work harder when you come home. You will feel repaid. You will find a new world opened to you. You will realize you are a human being, not merely a kitchen drudge—always scrubbing and washing and cooking, and never having any outside interests or pleasures. You will be proud of yourself when you can read your children's school books and reports. And your husband and children will be proud of you too!

Credits

Cecilia Razovsky, from Ṿos yede froy darf ṿisen ṿegen birgershafṭ [What Every Woman Should Know About Citizenship] (New York: National Council of Jewish Women, 1926), pp. 84–87.

Engage with this Source

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.

Read more

Creator Bio

Cecilia Razovsky

1891–1968

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Cecilia Razovsky was an American social worker and advocate for immigrants. Educated at Washington University, the Corliss School of Law in West Virginia, the St. Louis School of Economics, and the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, she began her career as a legal secretary and English teacher for immigrants. In 1917, Razovsky moved to Washington, D.C., where she served as an inspector in the child labor division of the U.S. Children’s Bureau until 1920. She was active in the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), throughout the 1930s, serving as secretary and later associate director of the immigrant aid department. She represented the NCJW at the World Conference of Jewish Women in Vienna and spoke on U.S. immigration policies. Razovsky chaired and participated in several national and international conferences focused on immigration and refugee aid, including roles with the International Conference for Protection of Migrants and German-Jewish Children’s Aid. She was an editor of The Immigrant and wrote articles and pamphlets to help new immigrants become citizens. 

You may also like

The Education of Orthodox Girls

Together with many others we emigrated from Kraków to the great city of Vienna. It is already ten weeks since we relocated here. We withstood many troubles. For nearly two weeks we simply wandered in…
View Source
Photograph of woman wearing white head scarf holding a bouquet and gazing downward in a field.
Tooltip info icon

Bezalel Student as Ruth the Moabite

Ben-Dov was the founder of the photography department in the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts. This photograph of an art student posing as the biblical Ruth is faithful to the Bezalel mission to…
View Source

The Jewish Woman

The position of the Jewish woman in Germany today cannot be ascertained from understanding the present alone. A brief look at the recent and distant past—perhaps even the long-distant past—is…
View Source