Anna Moscowitz Kross inspecting a class at Riker's Island with New York City Mayor Robert F. Wagner, 1959.

Anna Moscowitz Kross (1891-1974)

Anna Moscowitz Kross was born in Nishwez, Russia on July 17, 1891. When she was two years old her parents immigrated to New York City. She completed her education at Columbia University and New York University and graduated at just nineteen years old. She was required to wait two years because of her age to take the bar exam to become a lawyer, although once she did she put her values into her work straight away. These values included working for women's and children's rights as well as those of any of the downtrodden and overlooked in society. Her work with Domestic Relations and Night Court for women was groundbreaking in the world of criminal justice. Her career also consisted of many firsts; first women assistant corporation counsel for New York City in 1918 and Commissioner of Corrections in 1933 among others. She held the post of commissioner until she was seventy-five years old. Kross was famous for her interest in each of the people that she represented as a lawyer or passed judgement on as a magistrate.