A distinguished audience of more than 300, including social elite, political figures and a number of well-known journalists, gathered last night at the Women’s City Club, 22 Park avenue, at a memorial meeting for Mrs. Belle Moskowitz, who died one year ago today.
Mrs. Charles Dana Gibson, who presided at the meeting, described her personal friendship with Mrs. Moskowitz. “She was the finest friend and adviser any one could have,” Mrs. Gibson declared.
Letters of tribute to Mrs. Moskowitz were read from Governor Lehman, George Gordon Battle and Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins.
“We are trying to recreate a friend who meant so much. not only in our individual lives, but also in the corporate life of the community and people beyond the community,” Secretary Perkins wrote.
“As I knew her personally, and I visited her regularly, Belle Moskowitz was not a simple person, but rather one who was buffeted about as all moderns are in the complexities of her own life and the age in which we are living. Her genius lay in the fact that she was aware of these complexities.
“Mrs. Moskowitz was always knitting, if not actually knitting a piece of goods she was knitting the complex materials of life into a pattern which served social justice,” Secretary Perkins declared.
Former Governor Alfred E. Smith paid a glowing tribute to Mrs. Moskowitz, for many years his close advisor in his political career.
“I would rather speak of Mrs. Moskowitz as a woman and as a mother than as the known political genius which she most certainly was,” the former governor said.
“She had no sense of striving for her own personal recognition, and unlike most women she was able to work with men. Of all the people I ever knew she had the most sympathetic understanding. I cannot remember her having said anything about anyone that was not all right. She had the rare gift of a keen mind and a generous heart.
“Although she and everyone else knew that she could have had any political post that was in my power as governor to grant she was modest and forever foregoing the limelight to stay in the rear and help others.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
