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Critical journey
National Forum, Summer 1997 by Perry, Elisabeth Israels
I began my research with Oscar Handlin's sketch of Belle in that encyclopedia, her long obituary in the New York Times, and tributes sent in to newspapers by organizations on whose boards she had served. There was also a small collection of Moskowitz memorabilia at Connecticut College for Women in New London.
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That first year of research I followed dozens of leads, some paying off, others not. By chance, looking for one of her early essays in the social work journal The Survey, I came across pieces she had written and references to her that had not been indexed. I then skimmed all Survey volumes published while she was a part-time editor there (1906-9), a time-consuming task that taught me much about influences in Belle Israels's early career. "Dance halls" in the New York Times index yielded a chronology of her reform work, many of her policy statements, and a full-page Sunday Magazine piece on her from 1912 that had not been indexed under her name. Specialized newspapers and periodicals helped, too. Those from New York's Jewish community mentioned her activities, published her articles, or commented on events relevant to her. Through Women's Wear Daily I reconstructed her last year with the Dress and Waist Manufacturers' Association. The annual reports and proceedings of social work and women's organizations provided another rich lode.
Even though one of Smith's biographers claimed that Belle Moskowitz had enjoyed direct telephone access to the governor, I still hoped she had written to him and that I would find letters from her in Smith's unpublished papers in Albany. After exhausting the name index, I worked through the topic list of Smith's files, examining all those on topics I knew would have interested Moskowitz, even if only peripherally. One day I hit a delicious find. I opened a file on water power from Smith's post-1929 private papers and discovered fifteen letters from Moskowitz to Smith from the mid-1920s, none of which had anything to do with water power!
There were other serendipitous finds as well. During my first year of research I interviewed my Aunt Miriam several times. Most of her recollections were from childhood. Some of Miriam's childhood memories proved important. She remembered, for example, the moment when her mother realized she would have more influence over Smith if she did not accept a government post from him.
INTERPRETIVE ISSUES
The research experience most crucial to the book's final shape was my discovery of women's history. I still remember how that process began. I was in my first year of research. I had gone to visit the New York Council of Jewish Women to look for signs of Belle Israels's activities in its old minute books, which the council kept in a locked cabinet at its offices. The minutes convinced me that the organization, by identifying social problems and training its members to solve them, had transformed Israels from a settlement worker into a skilled social reformer. To learn more, I began to read the published proceedings of the council's national meetings, which had started in 1893. Reading the speeches of nineteenth-century Jewish women leaders, I was astounded at the depth and power of their oratory. More important, their oratory advocated reforms I had previously associated exclusively with male politicians.
