Political trailblazer Belle Moskowitz wins passage of bill
regulating NY dance halls May 26, 1910 Born in New York City on
October 5, 1877, Belle Moskowitz initially studied drama, hoping
for a career on the stage. Dissuaded by her parents' objections,
she went instead to work for the Educational Alliance, a Jewish
settlement house, where beginning in 1900 she managed the roof
garden, exhibits, and musical and dramatic entertainment. Though
she resigned from the settlement at the time of her 1903
marriage, she maintained an active schedule of volunteer work
with the United Hebrew Charities, the New York State Conference
of Charities and Corrections, and the National Council of Jewish
Women (NCJW). Particularly influential was her work with the
NCJW to force the state to regulate dance halls, which were seen
as unsavory places of unhealthy amusement for working girls. A
bill to force dance halls to obtain state licenses passed the
New York Assembly on May 26, 1910, having passed the Senate a
few weeks earlier.