Cecilia Razovsky

Cecila Davidson Razovsky (May 4, 1891 – September 27, 1968) was a Jewish American social worker and activist for immigrants in the US.

Early life Razovsky was born on May 4, 1891, to immigrant parents Jonas and Minna (Meyerson) Razovsky in St. Louis, Missouri. She worked several jobs in order to help support her family including sewing buttons on overalls in a factory at the age of 12 and working as salesgirl, waitress, laundress, stenographer, clerk, and secretary. At the age of 18 she began teaching immigrants at night at the Jewish Educational Alliance in St. Louis.

She was educated at Washington University in St. Louis (1911), the Corliss School of Law (1912), the St. Louis School of Economics (1913), and the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy (1919). Additionally, she attended graduate classes in sociology at the University of Chicago.

Life and career In 1911, she began working for the St. Louis Board of Education as an attendance officer. In 1917, she moved to Washington D.C. and became and become an inspector in the child labor division of the United States Children's Bureau. She worked there until 1920. Between 1944 and 1948 she worked for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

She married Dr. Morris Davidson in 1927 and they had one son David L. Davidson. The family lived in Brazil, California and Texas. She died at the age of 77 on September 28, 1968, in San Diego.

Works What every emigrant should know : a simple pamphlet for the guidance and benefit of prospective immigrants to the United States (1922) Handicaps in naturalization: a study of the effect of high fees upon the naturalization of aliens in the United States (1932) Making Americans (1938)