{{Short description|American social activist (1877–1933)}} {{Infobox person | name = Belle Moskowitz | image = BelleMoskowitz1924.png | alt = A white woman photographed in profile, wearing a substantial hat | caption = Belle Moskowitz, from a 1924 publication | birth_name = Belle Lindner | birth_date = October 5, 1877 | birth_place = New York City | death_date = January 2, 1933 (aged 55) | death_place = New York City | spouse = Charles Henry Israels<br>{{marriage |Henry Moskowitz|1914|1933}} | children = 3 | relatives = Elisabeth Israels Perry (granddaughter)<br> Chuck Israels (grandson) }}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2019}} '''Belle Moskowitz''' ({{nee}} '''Lindner''', '''Israels'''; October 5, 1877 – January 2, 1933) was a Jewish-American progressive reformer and political advisor in the early 20th century. She worked as a political advisor and publicist to New York Governor and 1928 Democratic presidential candidate Al Smith.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Freeman |first=Jo |date=March 1989 |title=Reviewed Work(s): Belle Moskowitz: Feminine Politics and the Exercise of Power in the Age of Alfred E. Smith by Elisabeth Israels Perry; Partner and I: Molly Dewson, Feminism, and New Deal Politics by Susan Ware; The Grounding of Modern Feminism by Nancy F. Cott |journal=The American Political Science Review |volume=83 |pages=272–274 |doi=10.2307/1956458 |jstor=1956458 |s2cid=147370563}}</ref> In her obituary, the ''New York Times'' referred to her as the most powerful woman in U.S. politics.<ref name=":0" />
==Early life== Belle Lindner was born on October 5, 1877 in Harlem, New York City. She was raised in an Ashkenazi Jewish family; her parents were Isidor Lindner ({{langx|yi|איזידאָר לינדנער}}) and Esther Freyer ({{langx|yi| אסתּר פֿרײַער לינדנער}}), religious immigrants from East Prussia. They worked in watchmaking.
Isidor was a cantor at Temple Israel, the first synagogue in Harlem. As a young girl, Belle Lindner would have been exposed to the charitable activities of the temple's female Sisterhood, a group which collected money, organized sewing for the poor, and worked with United Hebrew Charities. The Sisterhood also organized a "Working Girl's Vacation Fund" and a "Working Girl's Club" to improve the qualities of life for women living in the city. These activities have much in common with Lindner's later advocacy for young working-class women and recreational opportunities. <ref>{{Cite book |last=Perry |first=Elisabeth Israels |title=Belle Moskowitz: feminine politics and the exercise of power in the age of Alfred E. Smith |date=2000 |publisher=Northeastern University Press |isbn=978-1-55553-424-0 |location=Boston |pages=13–14}}</ref>
Lindner attended the Horace Mann School, a laboratory school of Teachers College. In 1894 she attended Teachers College, Columbia University, where she studied oral interpretation of literature with Ida Benfey Judd.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Perry |first=Elisabeth Israels |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xm4wvLIijGIC&q=ida |title=Belle Moskowitz: feminine politics and the exercise of power in the age of Alfred E. Smith |date=2000 |publisher=Northeastern University Press |isbn=978-1-55553-424-0 |location=Boston |pages=5}}</ref> She stayed for only one year, opting instead for private lessons with Henrich Conreid, future Metropolitan Opera director, who believed she had great potential as a performer.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3">{{cite news |date=November 23, 1914 |title=Dr. Moskowitz weds Mrs. B. L. Israels |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1914/11/23/100116079.pdf |url-access=subscription |access-date=18 November 2020 |work=New York Times}} Also cited in Caro, p.93</ref>
Early in her life, worked as an actress, and performed for private events. She later taught acting and elocution to children and considered work as a professional actress before going into politics.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last1=O’Connell|first1=Jeffrey|last2=O’Connell|first2=Thomas E.|date=December 2002|title=Belle Moskowitz: An early female powerhouse|journal=Gender Issues|volume=20|issue=1|pages=76–83|doi=10.1007/s12147-002-0008-2|s2cid=145759200 |issn=1098-092X}}</ref>
== Career ==
=== Early career === In 1900, at the age of 23, Belle Lindner became a social worker at the Educational Alliance, an organization whose primary focus was cultural assimilation for Jewish immigrants. She held various appointments there, eventually becoming director of entertainments and exhibits.
After leaving the Alliance, Lindner (now '''Belle Israels''') wrote for the United Hebrew Charities and ''Charities'', a social work journal, for which she later became an editorial assistant. She also joined the New York section of the Council of Jewish Women, another organization that helped Jewish immigrants. With her role as chair of the philanthropy committee, her focus was welfare work. She oversaw sick and poor children at a hospital on Randall’s Island and visited troubled girls in reformatories. In 1907, Belle Israels joined the first board of directors for the New York branch of the Travelers’ Aid Society, an organization formed with the aim of protecting solo female travelers from trafficking and other situations that threatened their safety.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cimino |first=Eric C. |date=2016 |title=The Travelers' Aid Society: Moral Reform and Social Work in New York City, 1907–1916 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/90018205 |journal=New York History |volume=97 |issue=1 |pages=42 |issn=0146-437X |jstor=90018205}}</ref>
Her first effort at social reform was to clean up and license the city's commercial dance halls, which she saw as places that got young working girls into trouble. Working through the Council of Jewish Women-New York Section, by 1910 she had won laws that regulated dance hall conditions, including fire and safety and the selling of alcoholic drinks.<ref name=":4">{{cite book |last1=Perry |first1=Elisabeth Israels Perry |title=Belle Moskowitz: Feminine Politics in the Age of Alfred E. Smith |date=1987 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-1-55553-424-0 |location=New York |pages=3–48}}</ref> ''The New York Times'' stated, "These laws did more to improve the moral surroundings of young girls" than any other single social reform of the period.<ref name=":3" />
Her first published article, "Social Work Among Young Women", focused on the importance of clubs in girls' socialization as well as the importance women have in shaping communities. She concluded that when women are influenced by "right ideals, social, moral, artistic, intellectual, the higher becomes their standard of living."{{Attribution needed|reason=create citation of textual source for quote|date=March 2025}}
This work eventually led to her first major project: The Lakeview Home for Girls, which opened for permanent use 1911. The Lakeview was located on Staten Island and gave young women temporary shelter, as well as aid in finding work.<ref name=":4" />
In the 1912 presidential election, Israels publicly aligned with the platform of Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Party, which emphasized labor protections and occupational safety. In a letter to fellow reformer Lillian Wald, she stated that “social reform has the services of America’s first publicity man [Roosevelt] and our ideas will become common currency.”<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wallace |first=Mike |title=Greater Gotham: a history of New York City from 1898 to 1919 |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-511635-9 |series=The Gotham series |location=New York |pages=578–9}}</ref> During the same year, she worked locally as a Progressive ward leader for her home district in Yonkers and helped to elect a party member alderman there.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Kristie |title=Moskowitz, Belle (1877–1933) {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/moskowitz-belle-1877-1933 |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref>
=== Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire === In 1913, after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, Israels began working to promote the grievances of workers. She mediated disputes between the Garment District unions and employers as a grievance clerk for the Dress and Waist Manufacturing Association. She was fired from this role for ruling in favor of labor unions in a majority of cases, but was rehired in January 1914 and ascended to the role of labor department manager, staying until fall 1916.<ref name=":6" />
=== Labor mediation and World War I === In addition to her work as a labor mediator in the Garment District, Israels also worked privately as an industrial mediator, writer, and advisor.<ref name=":0" /> In a flyer for her business, she offered counseling for factory planning and employment management that would benefit both employees and employers. She wrote, "Discontented or poorly trained workers, unsuited to their jobs, threaten the peace of the shop. Whatever threatens peace threatens profit."<ref name=":8">{{Cite book |last=Moskowitz |first=Mrs. Henry |title=[Pamphlet for Industrial Counseling Services] |type=The Linda Lear Center for Special Collections and Archives}}</ref> She was said in the ''New York Times'' to have resolved over 10,000 grievance cases.<ref name=":5" />
Following America’s entry into World War I in April 1917, Belle Israels (now '''Moskowitz''') observed that there was no female counterpart to the all-male Mayor’s Committee on National Defense to coordinate the wartime efforts of various women’s groups across New York City. She successfully proposed such a group to Mayor John Purroy Mitchel, leading to the formation of a Committee of Women on National Defense.<ref name=":9">{{Cite book |last=Perry |first=Elisabeth Israels |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xm4wvLIijGIC&q=Mayor%E2%80%99s%20Committee%20on%20National%20Defense. |title=Belle Moskowitz: feminine politics and the exercise of power in the age of Alfred E. Smith |date=2000 |publisher=Northeastern University Press |isbn=978-1-55553-424-0 |location=Boston |pages=113}}</ref> Moskowitz served as group secretary and thought through plans for the mass entry of women into the workforce in the event of a loss of male labor due to the draft.<ref name=":10">{{Cite news |last=Mooers Marshall |first=Marguerite |date=4 June 1917 |title=Companies and Battalions in a Mobile Army of Women Planned to do Men's Work |url=https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=tew19170604-01.1.6&srpos=5&e=------191-en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22mrs.+henry+moskowitz%22--------- |work=The Evening World |pages=8}}</ref>
=== Al Smith gubernatorial campaign === In the 1918 New York gubernatorial election, Belle and her second husband Henry Moskowitz pivoted from supporting Progressive and anti-political machine "fusion" candidates to backing Democratic candidate Al Smith for governor. Although Smith had ties to the Tammany Hall machine, which the Moskowitzes had opposed in their previous political advocacy, his support of labor issues aligned with their own. For example, following the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, a push for factory safety standards legislation (which both Belle and Henry had helped lobby for) led Smith to co-sponsor the bill that established a Factory Investigating Commission.<ref name=":6" /> Belle Moskowitz's work during this election began her partnership with Smith, which lasted for over a decade.
=== Work with Al Smith === Smith connected with Moskowitz through her work as an industrial mediator and writer. She became one of Smith's most intimate advisors, and also worked as his publicist, and he kept her close at hand throughout his eight years as governor of New York State. Visitors would note her presence in the corner of his office during critical meetings. Witnesses reported that Smith would even defer to her on major legislative proposals, waiting for her approval before making final decisions.<ref>{{Caro: The Power Broker}}</ref> She advised him throughout the process of enacting broad reforms for the state of New York that would later inspire and direct Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the development of the New Deal during his presidency in 1932.<ref name=":1" />
During her time working with Al Smith, Moskowitz mentored both Robert Moses and a young Anna M. Rosenberg in the art of wielding power behind the scenes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gorham |first=Christopher C. |title=The confidante : the untold story of the woman who helped win WWII and shape modern America |date=2023 |isbn=978-0-8065-4200-3 |location=New York, NY |oclc=1369148974}}</ref>
=== Al Smith presidential campaign === When Smith became the Democratic Party candidate for President in 1928, Moskowitz worked as his campaign manager. In this role, she has been proposed as the first woman to manage an American presidential campaign.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Slayton |first=Robert A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bOahalX-CxQC&q=%22first%20woman%22 |title=Empire statesman: the rise and redemption of Al Smith |date=2001 |publisher=Free Press |isbn=978-0-684-86302-3 |location=New York |pages=266}}</ref> She later worked as his press agent during his attempt for renomination in 1932.<ref>[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3651/is_199707/ai_n8779729 Critical journey | National Forum | Find Articles at BNET<!-- bot-generated title -->] at www.findarticles.com</ref>
=== Later career === In 1928, following Smith's unsuccessful run for the presidency, Moskowitz opened her own public relations firm, Publicity Associates, one of the first firms independently founded by a woman.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Page |first1=Janis Teruggi |url=https://uk.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-assets/114726_book_item_114726.pdf |title=Introduction to public relations: strategies for digital and socially responsible communication |last2=Parnell |first2=Lawrence J. |date=2021 |publisher=SAGE |isbn=978-1-5443-9200-4 |edition=2nd |location=Los Angeles |pages=27}}</ref>
== Personal life == In 1903, Belle married Charles Henry Israels (1864–1911), an artist and architect, whom she met at the Educational Alliance where he had been a volunteer club leader. They had four children, three of whom lived to adulthood: Carlos Lindner, Miriam, and Josef. Following in his mother’s career path, Josef would go on to become Ethiopian emperor Halie Selassie’s public relations counsel.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=TIME |date=1935-12-30 |title=ETHIOPIA: Deal No. 2 |url=https://time.com/archive/6892212/ethiopia-deal-no-2/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |magazine=TIME |language=en}}</ref>
She was widowed when Charles died in 1911.<ref>Robert Caro, The Power Broker, 1975, p 92</ref> Belle's second husband, Henry Moskowitz, had a Ph.D. in philosophy and was a settlement worker on the Lower East Side. They were colleagues at the Educational Alliance, and they would continue to work closely together in the investigations following the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, as well as on the citizens' committee formed in the aftermath of the Rosenthal murder case in 1912. They married in 1914.<ref name=":6" />
== Death == On December 8, 1932, Belle Moskowitz fell down the front steps of her house and, while recovering from her broken bones, died of an embolism on January 2, 1933, at age 55.<ref name=":5">{{cite news|date=January 3, 1933|title=Mrs. Moskowitz, Smith Aide, Dies; Adviser To Governors Wielded Wide Political Power Behind The Scenes. Pioneer In Social Work Never Held Public Office, But Molded Legislative Trends. Hurt In Fall|work=The New York Times|quote=Mrs. Henry Moskowitz, who during former Governor Alfred E. Smith's ascendancy in the Democratic party wielded more political power than any other woman in the United States, died yesterday of heart disease in her home, 147 West Ninety-fourth Street.}}</ref> She was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Westchester County.<ref name=":7">{{Cite news |date=January 5, 1933 |title=3,000 AT FUNERAL OF MS. MOSKOWITZ: Throng Overflows Temple at Services for Adviser of Political Leaders. SMITH IS A MOURNER Mrs. Roosevelt Among Prominent Persons Who Hear Dr. Wise Praise Unselfish Citizenship. |work=The New York Times |pages=21}}</ref>
Moskowitz's funeral at New York's Temple Emanu-El was attended by more than 3,000 people. Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, delivering her eulogy, said that Moskowitz would "stand out in the history of American life and politics as the woman citizen never selfish and never unwise in politically pioneering days, but ever wise and effectively performing the duties of citizenship with an eye single to the truest good of the citizenship."<ref name=":7" /> She received condolences from many figures in New York public life, including Governor Herbert Lehman, Senator Robert Wagner, and Frances Perkins.<ref>{{Cite news |date=January 4, 1933 |title=LEADERS IN TRIBUTE TO MRS. MOSKOWITZ: Many Telegrams of Sympathy and Eulogy of Her Career Received by Family. SMITH CALLS AT HOME Police Prepare for Throng at the Funeral Services This Morning at Temple Emanu-El. |work=The New York Times |pages=19}}</ref>
==Legacy== Edward Bernays, the “father of public relations,” considered Moskowitz a pioneer in the field; the two had a friendly rivalry over who was first to use the title “public relations counselor” to describe their professional role.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Perry |first=Elisabeth Israels |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xm4wvLIijGIC&q=bernays |title=Belle Moskowitz: feminine politics and the exercise of power in the age of Alfred E. Smith |date=2000 |publisher=Northeastern University Press |isbn=978-1-55553-424-0 |location=Boston |pages=141}}</ref> He names her among a group of influential publicity figures in women’s organizations in his book ''Propaganda''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bernays |first=Edward |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3De8nd_B_C8C&q=%22mrs.%20henry: |title=Propaganda |year=1928 |isbn=9780970312594 |pages=131|publisher=Ig }}</ref>
In 2009, the National Jewish Democratic Council gave its first "Belle Moskowitz" award to Ann Lewis.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jwa.org/blog/Belle_Moskowitz |title=The Belle of the (political) party | Jewish Women's Archive |publisher=Jwa.org |date=June 16, 2009 |access-date=February 7, 2015}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==Bibliography== * Perry, Elisabeth Israels (1987). ''Belle Moskowitz: Feminine Politics and the Exercise of Power in the Age of Alfred E. Smith''. Oxford University Press
== External links == * [http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/moskowitz-belle Belle Moskowitz, Jewish Women's Archive] * [http://collections.conncoll.edu/moskowitz/index.html Belle Moskowitz Collection, Linda Lear Center for Special Collections & Archives, Connecticut College] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141011033849/http://collections.conncoll.edu/moskowitz/index.html |date=October 11, 2014 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Moskowitz, Belle}} Category:1877 births Category:1933 deaths Category:Al Smith Category:Horace Mann School alumni Category:Teachers College, Columbia University alumni Category:19th-century American people Category:New York (state) Democrats Category:American women's rights activists Category:Settlement workers Category:American people of German-Jewish descent Category:Burials at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Category:American social workers Category:Jewish American women in politics Category:20th-century American Jews Category:19th-century American Jews Category:American women human rights activists