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She was also an avid social reformer with focused primarily with child welfare and involving young people, especially girls, in contemporary politics.

Career

Prior to her role in Al Smith's campaign, Moskowitz was a prominent female political innovator. She founded many political coalitions that strengthened notions of democracy in the U.S. before FDR's New Deal was instated. (Elisabeth Perry Citation here) Her career in social reform began as a young girl with the Temple Israel Sisterhood who 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.

In January 1900, she began doing social work for the Educational Alliance, located in New York City's Lower East Side. The Educational Alliance was an organization whose primary focus was cultural assimilation for Jewish immigrants. She held a variety of positions at the Alliance, including the "Directress of Women's Work" and directed exhibits and entertainment events, which increased in quality during her three and a half years there. The higher quality of entertainment performances decreased the benefactors' patronization of Jewish immigrants.

At age 23, 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."

After leaving the Alliance, Moskowitz (then Israel) 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, yet 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.

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. Also with the Council, Moskowitz initiated a program for reform to make dancehalls a safer space for young women, particularly "working girls", by controlling alcohol distribution.