THE JEWISH NEWS

Friday, September 20, 1946

Lady Liberty's 60th Birthday

Will Her Credo Remain
The Ideal of America?

By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

lished a collection of her own verses and
some translations. These promising early

efforts soon flowered into real genius.
By the time she was 21 the literary
world began to take notice of Emma Laz-
arus, and her second volume of poetry
won the commendation of Ralph Waldo
Emerson and William Cullen Bryant.

1■ .eup photograph of the Statue of Liberty.
r e.cvnt
A
Sot the vol. a rive of New York Harbor. w here immigt ants of
past
tin
ears
have bowed their heeds to the Lady of
the
■

Libe , 'Int, national Photo.)

0

28. this nation will mark the sixtieth anni-
∎ ers:try of the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty.
At the dedication of Lady Liberty. the thought

N Oct.

exprt•s.seel a as:

"We dedicate this statue to the friendship of
the nations and the peace of the world: the spirit
of liberty embraces all races in common brotherhood,
it % 'ices in all languages the same needs and aspir-
ations."
in 1946 60 Year after these thoughts wcre littered.
the worlds oppressed and persecuted again direct their
the i - Qhts :0 our shores and wonder whether the in-
s( option on the Statue of Liberty. the poem by the
eminent .1r w L. ;t poet. Emma Lazarus. The New Colos-
sus." will retain its original meaning or whether it is to
b. r•:f.:atcd to tne museum as an American ideal of the

Animated by a love of the classic
poets and writers of Germany and
Prance, the mythology of the Greeks and
the beauty of nature. Emma Larazus'
early works bore the stamp of these in-
fluences. Her translations were devoted
to the writings of Heinrich Heine and
Victor Hugo while her original pieces re-
flected a genuine sense of beauty. Despite
the approval her poems won from the
public and men of letters, the spark of
inspiration was missing from her work.
This weakness was remedied when
she reached the peak of greatness as the result of the
awakening within her of the Hebraic spirit. It had
always been intent but was not brought to the surface
until she was shaken out of her reticence and literary
naivete by the pogroms in Russia and Romania from
1879 to 1882. The tragedy of these events stirred her so
deeply that she turned her poetic genius to the defense
of her people.
With the zeal that takes possession

Miss Lazarus' contribution to the souvenir

book was "The New Col-oases," a poem of such

tender beauty that it was inscribed on a tablet
fastened to the inside of the Statue's base.
It is one of the ironies of fate that the life of the
brilliant Jewess who wrote it should have been cut short
in its prime. Emma Lazarus died in 1887. at the age
of 39, a year after the Statue of Liberty was dedicated.
"The New Colossus" has only fourteen lines. but in
them are expressed with prophetic instinct all of the
imperishable and noble ideals which the Statue of
Liberty symbolizes.
Will these lines. written by Emma Lazarus years ago.
remain the credo of Americanism and a striking memo-
rial to their author? This is the question which the
harrassed of the world's exiles ask of America today.
President Truman's recent directive calling for the
admission of 39.000 survivors from Nazism in this coun-
try during the current years thus far remains un-
fulfilled.
The expressed desire of our President that our im-
migration laws be revised to permit the admission of
more unfortunate European Jews to this country is
meeting with opposition.
Lady Liberty is a symbol. Were she human, she
would weep over the change that has taken place in
the idealism that motivates American life.
But as long as the symbol exists to remind us of
the American credo. we retain faith that this credo will
live as our guiding ideal.

of converts, Emma Lazarus abandoned

the delicateness and purposefulness that
had characterized her youthful writings
and plunged into the formulation of a
solution to the Jewish problem.
Her imagination fired by the Palestine
ideal, she wrote a series of "Epistles to the
Hebrews" in which she outlined a plan for
the repatriation of the Jews in their ancient
homeland. That was fully a decade before
Dr. Theodore Herzi convened the first World
Zionist Congress.

past.

Emma Lazarus' New Colossus• - widely quoted by
libel!,irians throughout the world. reads:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
W;th conquering limbs astride from land to land.
Ilere at our sea-washed. sunset gates shall stand.
A mighty woman. with a torch. whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning. and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon hand
Glows world-wide welcome: her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep. ancient lands. your storied pomp!" cries she
Wiat silent lips. "Give me your tired. your poor.
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free:
'le wretched refuse of your teeming shores-
. end them. t he homeless. tempest- tossed, to me—
I lift my hand bey d. the golden door!"

1.

presentt.d by the people of France as a gift to the
pet:'!t' of America in tribute to the high ideals that
animatid the birth of the U. S.. the world-famous
Statue of Libeity has become a permanent symbol of
these ideals. Standing on Bedloe Island at the entrance
to r:z‘w York harbor. the huge representation of liberty
has inspired millions who fled to our shores from oppres-
sion and tyranny abroad. For three generations the
towering figure has been a beacon of hope and joy to
stiff. ring millions for whom a new life began when they
sail - cl pa Miss Liberty with her forearm outstretched
in welcome.
Since that. day half a century ago when President
Grover Cleveland formally dedicated the Statue of
Liberty, millions of people have gone to Bedloe Island
to see it. These myriads of visitors from every corner
of the earth have marvelled at the colossal creation of
Frederic August Bartholdi. They have been thrilled as
they climbed up into the head and squeezed themselves
into the torch.
On the way down they doubtless paused to read the
two tablets that tell of the group of Frenchmen who
conl. eived of the Statue as France's gift to her sister
republic upon the occasion of the centenary of its
independence. and of the voluntary contributions by
thousands of Americans toward the fund for building
the giant pedestal.
Not far from these tablets is the third on which is
insciibed the poem The New Colossus." The author

of that poem, which sings the praises of the Goddess
of Liberty in lancotage that is immortal, was Emma
Lazarus. one, of the forgotten geniuses of American
Jewry. Virtually unknown todaY, she was one of the
most bi 'Want writers of the late ninetenth century.

Her life was tragically short and her literary creations
far from numerous. but her career nad in it the en-
nohling and humanitarian qualities symbolized by the
Statue of which she wrote with such prophetic fervor.
Daughter of Moses and Esther Lazarus, Ortho-
dox Jews of aristocratic Portuguese lineage. Emma
Lazarus was born in New York City on July 22, 1849.
Raised in wealthy and sheltered surroundings, she
was educated by private tutors and spent her youth
only among the well-to-do. Her first writing, a poem.
was done at the age of 14. When she was 17 she pub-

In prose and verse she pleaded impos-
sionately for justice to the Jew. The vigor
of her writing and the patent sincerity of

her pleas gave notice that a giant advocate
of the Jewish cause had arisen. In poem

after poem she counseled a Zion rebuilt.
depicted the tragedy of a harrassed Israel
and created word pictures which for pro-
phetic and beautiful expression of the age-
long cry of the Jews seldom have been
equalled.
It was inevitable that her writing. hav-
ing taken the path since followed by such
other literary figures as Ludwig Lewisohn.
Herzl. Arnold Zweig and Emil Ludwig, should
lead her to the storehouse of her own
People's literary treasures. She made a study

of the Hebrew language. and within seven
months read the Hebrew Bible in the orig-
inal. From her pen came translations of
some of the finest gems of medieval Hebrew
poetry.
At first she translated into English from
German versions of these Hebrew classics,
but when she acquired Hebrew she trans-
lated from the original works of Solomon
Ben Judah Gabirol, Judah Ben Haley', Moses
Ben Ezra and other creators of the golden
age of Jewish literature.
The writing of "The New Colossus,"
which has linked Emma Lazarus' name for-
ever with the Statue of Liberty, was a direct
outgrowth of her belated but passionate in-
terest in the plight of her people. Despite
her delicate health she spent days visiting
the haggard and ragged Jewish emigrants
from Russia and Romania who crowded the
immigration station on Ward's Island in
1881 and 1882. If the news of the persecu-
tions in Europe had not already stirred her,

the sight of the refugees from pogroms
would have stimulated her to a crusader's

fervor.

Epistle To The Jews

* * *

By EMMA LAZARUS

During those years the American people were being
asked to contribute to the $300,000 fund for building the
pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty was to stand.

Money was slow in coming in. To obtain the needed
funds, many devices were resorted to. Newspapers
carried appeals. Public-spirited citizens held mass meet-
ings and social-minded women organized rummage
sales and sold souvenirs. One of these women was
Constance Cary Harrison, who was collecting poems,
drawings and stories for publication in a souvenir book
to be sold for the benefit of the pedestal fund.
When she appealed to Emma Lazarus for a contri-
bution to the book the Jewish poetess at first declined.
A modest person, she was not inclined to write for
souvenir journals. But when . Mrs. Harrison reminded

Miss Lazarus "of the Goddess standing on her pedestal
down yonder in the bay and holding out her torch to
those Russian refugees of yours of whom you are so fond
of writing," she galvanized into action.

-

Every student of the Hebrew language is
aware that we have in the conjunction of our
verbs a mood known as the intensive voice, which
by means of an almost imperceptible modification
of vowel points, intensifies the meaning of the
primitive root. A similar significance seems to
attach to the Jews themselves in connection with
the people among whom they dwell. They are the
intensive form of any nationality whose language
and customs they adopt . • . Influenced by the
same causes, they represent the same results; but
the deeper lights and shadows of their Oriental
temperament throw their failings, as well as their
virtues into more prominent relief.

