Emma Lazarus Jewish, Spain, Portugal, Zionist, Poetess

Emma Lazarus (July 22, 1849 - November 19, 1887) Jewish, Spain, Portugal, Zionist, Poetess

Emma Lazarus wrote the poem “The New Colossus” in 1883 to inspire public support for the Statue of Liberty, which she called the “Mother of Exiles.” The poem was solicited by William Maxwell Evarts as a donation to an auction that was held to help raise funds for the construction of the Statue’s pedestal. The poem failed to attract much attention and was not part of the opening of the Statue in 1886. It remained in obscurity until Georgina Schuyler, a friend of Lazarus, succeeded in having the poem engraved on a plaque and mounted inside the pedestal in 1903. Lazarus’ words, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” came to symbolize the meaning of the Statue of Liberty. Many of the individuals and groups she referred to were immortalized by Augustus Sherman years later but, like her, they gained prominence after he died.

Born in New York as the fourth child in a well-to-do family of seven children, she was one of the first successful Jewish American authors and considered an important poet of the nineteenth century. There is not much information available on her private life and therefore little explanation as to why, despite her privileged upbringing, education and academic success, she did not marry. Not a great deal was written about her until interest in the Statue of Liberty was renewed with the approach of its 100th anniversary. Yet much of the writing came from contemporary authors working without primary source documents, so the mystery still remains.

Her parents, Moses and Esther Lazarus, were descendants of America’s first Jewish settlers, those arriving from Spain and Portugal. Emma Lazarus had a great deal of pride in her Sephardic heritage and even began translating the works of Jewish poets from German to English. Her father, a successful sugar refiner, was not religiously observant and the family gradually integrated into New York’s wealthy, fashionable Christian society.

Although there was no evidence that she ever experienced religious discrimination, the Grand Union Hotel’s refusal in 1877 to admit Joseph Seligman reaffirmed her belief that prejudices existed beneath the politeness of wealthy society. When the Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants began arriving in mass to escape from anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe, Lazarus became active in the movement to provide the education they needed to become self-supporting in their new home. She also was active in what would later be called the Zionist movement, advocating for a separate Jewish homeland.

After the death of her father, she began to travel, spending time in Europe in 1885 and 1887. She was seriously ill when she returned from her September 1887 trip and passed away two months later. (The photograph was obtained from the Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-53145.)