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Emma
Lazarus, 1849-1887
One of the first successful Jewish American authors, Emma Lazarus
was part of the late nineteenth century New York literary elite
and
was celebrated in her day as an important American poet. In her later
years, she wrote bold, powerful poetry and essays protesting the
rise of antisemitism and arguing for Russian immigrants' rights.
She called on Jews to unite and create a homeland in Palestine before
the title Zionist had even been coined.
Top Photo: Emma Lazarus, Engraving by T. Johnson from The
New York Historical Society
France
provided the Statue of Liberty, and America provided the Statue of
Liberty's pedestal. In 1903, sixteen
years after her death, Lazarus' sonnet "The New Colossus" was
engraved on a plaque and placed in the pedestal as a memorial. "The
New Colossus" was originally written in 1883 for an art
auction called "In
Aid of the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund."
Bottom photo: The Statue of Liberty, 1886, from The
New York Historical Society. Emma Lazarus wrote many poems including "In
the Jewish Synagogue at Newport," 1871, one novel,
Alide: An Episode in Goethe’s Life and
a play, The Dance to Death. Her play, The Dance to
Death, dealt with the persecution
of Jews in medieval Germany and was completed years prior to its
1882 publication date.
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