[1][2][3][4] Rakovsky was born on July 3, 1865, in Bialystok, Poland in a traditionally prosperous Jewish family.

Her father Menahem Mendel was a trained rabbi, worked as a commission agent and was seventeen years old at her birth.

She had to discontinue studies when she was married at the age of 16 to Shlomo Malchin who was ten years older.

[1] In 1920, Rakovsky founded the Jewish Women’s Association (YFA) in Warsaw which came to be known as a national organization for Zionism and feminist by its belief.

[4] The association worked towards providing secular and vocational education to Jewish women and to prepare them to be independent.