Razovsky (Davidson), Cecilia
RAZOVSKY (Davidson), CECILIA
RAZOVSKY (Davidson ), CECILIA (1891–1968), U.S. social worker and expert on immigration. Born in St. Louis, she worked there as a volunteer at the Jewish Educational Alliance, teaching English to foreigners. In 1917 she moved to Washington, d.c. and served as an inspector in the U.S. Children's Bureau. She was secretary in the immigration department of the National Council of Jewish Women and in 1932 became associate director of the council. Razovsky traveled widely to study the conditions of Jewish refugees, and in Cuba she set up a social service program for the refugees.
Razovsky was head of a group of experts assigned by Secretary of Labor Perkins to study conditions on Ellis Island and was on several U.S. immigration committees. She also served as assistant to the executive director of the National Refugee Service.
From 1922 to 1930 she was editor of The Immigrant and she wrote articles, plays, and pamphlets on immigration. Her pamphlet Handicaps in Naturalization (1932) investigated the effects of the 1929 amendment to the Naturalization Law, raising the fee from five to twenty-five dollars. Her Making Americans (1938), a manual prepared for the National Council of Jewish Women, contains information on the naturalization process and suggests ways of organizing communal naturalization aid programs.