Guide to the Adolph Moskovitz Papers MC 106

Contributing Institution: Sacramento Public Library

Title: Adolph Moscovitz Papers

Identifier/Call Number: MC 106

Physical Description: 1.0 Linear Feet 1 archival box

Date (inclusive): 1963 to 1972

Abstract: Contained are newspaper clippings, speech notes, correspondence, policy documents, campaign literature, and photographs that cover the Sacramento City School Board career of Adolph Moskovitz (1923-1996).

Language of Material: English .

The son of Russian immigrants, Adolph Moskovitz was born on April 15, 1923, in east Los Angeles, California. With the onset of World War II, he joined the Army Air Corps, piloting a B-24 "Liberator" bomber on several missions over Europe. After the war, Moskovitz enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, earning his bachelor's degree in 1947 after only two years and then graduating in 1949 from the school's Boalt Hall with a degree in law. Soon after, in November 1949, he joined the Bureau of Reclamation as an attorney, crafting a brand of water policy that caught the eye of State Attorney General Edmund "Pat" Brown. As a result, Moskovitz went to work for the Attorney General's office, providing counsel to state agencies on water policy. Moskovitz became best known for defending Los Angeles' right to take water from Mono Lake and its associate streams. In the pivotal 1983 case, the National Audubon Society versus the Superior Court, the state's Supreme Court ruled that the public's interest in a healthier lake would infringe on the city's right to access water. As an attorney for the Fresno-based Westlands Water District – the largest irrigation district in the country – he also defended the water rights of some of the state's largest farmers. Moskovitz was also a founding partner of Sacramento's prominent Kronick, Moskovitz, Tiedemann, and Girard law firm which, established in 1959, focused on water and water-related issues. Moskovitz's political career ran from 1964 to 1971. During that time, he served as a two-term member of the Sacramento City Unified School District Board. In that capacity, he was key in raising academic standards, increasing teacher salaries, and accelerating the integration of city schools via busing and fighting, as he put it, "the problem of de facto segregation." Quoted in a June 5, 1984, Sacramento Bee article, Moskovitz stated, "I still have a high regard for an integrated society, a society where people of varying background come together, understand each other and live in harmony and peace." Upon leaving the Sacramento School Board in 1971, Moskovitz endorsed Lorenzo Patiño and Tom Chinn to the same position. Moskovitz was a longtime resident of Sacramento's Riverside Village neighborhood (Little Pocket), where he lived with his wife Francine and daughters Ellen and Julie, both of whom attended schools within the Sacramento City Unified School District. He passed away on November 11, 1996.

The collection has been apportioned into six primary series. Series I. School Board Clippings; Series II. 1963 Election; Series III. 1967 Election; Series IV. Graduation Speeches; Series V. Board Opponents; and Series VI. Post-Political Career.

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[Identification of item], Adolph Moskovitz Papers, MC 106, Sacramento Room, Sacramento Public Library, Sacramento, California.