Emma Lazarus is best remembered for her poem,  The New Colossus.  However, in a recent touring exhibit the visited Drake Memorial Library, her fascinating life and experiences as a Jewish immigrant highlight the late 19th century immigrant experience, much of which is still relevant today. Many groups sought entrance to the United States during Emma’s lifetime for a variety of reasons, from escaping war and famine, to religious persecution, to abject poverty. The outcome for our country was incredibly positive, as these immigrants or their descendants made immeasurable advances for the country in arts, politics and sciences.
The United States today continues to be a magnet for those seeking a better life, and as these new immigrants are assimilated into our society, it can have only positive outcomes for our culture as a whole. We must keep in mind that most of us came of immigrant stock, and rather than isolating ourselves or the newcomers, embrace the fresh ideas and news customs they bring with them

O\u27Sullivan, Pam

Prince, Wendy S.

English

The College at Brockport, State University of New York: Digital Commons @Brockport

OPENING REMARKS 
Good afternoon and welcome. We hope you are enjoying this year’s diversity conference. We 
are very proud to be here today to talk a little bit about a recent exhibit that the library hosted. 
My name is Pam O’Sullivan and I am head of integrated public services at Drake Memorial 
Library. That’s just a fancy way of saying that I oversee the various library departments that 
interact with the public. With me is my colleague, Wendy Prince, who is our Evening Librarian 
and Building Supervisor. She’s also the best grant writer we’ve had on staff since I’ve been here, 
and it is largely due to her skill in writing the grant that we were chosen to host Emma Lazarus: 
Voice of Liberty, Voice of Conscience. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
Links 
The little and the great are joined in one 
By God's great force. The wondrous golden sun 
Is linked unto the glow-worm's tiny spark; 
The eagle soars to heaven in his flight; 
And in those realms of space, all bathed in light, 
Soar none except the eagle and the lark. 
 
Emma Lazarus is best remembered for her poem, "The New Colossus." However, in a recent 
touring exhibit that visited Drake Memorial Library her life and writings highlight the late 19th 
century immigrant experience, as well as the place of Jewish people both immigrant and 
“established”.  
Many groups sought entrance to the United States during Emma’s lifetime for a variety of 
reasons, from escaping war and famine, to religious persecution, to abject poverty. The 
outcome for our country was incredibly positive, as these immigrants and their descendants 
made immeasurable advances for the country in arts, politics and sciences. 
The United States today continues to be a magnet for those seeking a better life, and as these 
new immigrants are assimilated into our society, it can have positive outcomes for our culture 
as a whole. We must keep in mind that most of us came of immigrant stock, and rather than 
isolating ourselves or the newcomers, embrace the fresh ideas and new customs they bring 
with them. 
WHY EMMA LAZARUS 
During the Spring 2012 semester, Drake Memorial Library hosted a national touring exhibit 
entitled “Emma Lazarus: Voice of Liberty, Voice of Conscience”. We applied for the exhibit for a 
number of reasons, including the diversity factor. A large national touring exhibit on John 
Adams had also been mounted in the library and we wanted to balance it with something 
different. When we heard about the Jewish Writers exhibits, and read about Emma Lazarus 
being one of the choices, we thought it quite apropos for our college community. 
The exhibit was developed by a company called NextBook, a nonprofit organization dedicated 
to supporting Jewish literature, culture, and ideas and the American Library Association Public 
Programs Office. Of the libraries chosen to host the exhibit, we were among a small number of 
academic libraries and the only library in the Western half of New York State. 
By choosing Emma Lazarus, we hoped to promote both student engagement and community 
engagement with the library. The series of programs we held which can be found on our 
Research Guide, were designed to appeal to a cross-section of the library’s constituency while 
at the same time adding value through being outside the normal realm of what students and 
the community expected to find in Drake. During the previous exhibit on John Adams, we 
received some comments that indicated a display featuring a minority figure would be 
welcomed; since we know Emma was on the way, we had reason to believe we had chosen 
well. 
EMMA’S BACKGROUND 
Emma was the fourth of seven children born to a wealthy New York Jewish family. It was a 
family that could trace its ancestry back to America’s first Jewish settlers who arrived in New 
Amsterdam around 1654. Her father was a sugar refiner who was eager to see his family 
integrated more closely into the Christian upper classes, and as such he worked hard at 
becoming one with their exclusive circle, even to establishing the elite Knickerbocker club with 
members of the Vanderbilt and Astor families. 
On her mother’s side of the family, Emma was connected to a number of well-known and 
powerful New Yorkers including Benjamin Nathan, a Vice-President of the NYSE. On her father’s 
side of the family, she was also well-connected; one of her uncles was Jacob Hart Lazarus, a 
popular and proficient portrait artist. 
EMMA’S EARLY LIFE 
It should be stressed that Emma was a child of privilege, and her experiences both as a woman 
and a Jew were affected by this. The attitudes of the time also contributed to her life 
experiences; for both her gender and her religion meant that some doors were closed to her. 
Still, she was atypical for a woman of her times. 
 
AN ATYPICAL WOMAN OF HER TIMES 
When Emma was in her early 20’s, her father built a summer cottage in fashionable Newport, 
RI, called The Beeches. Emma and her sisters belonged to the Town and Country club headed 
by Juliet Ward Howe, which met for literary and scientific entertainments. 
By the age of 25, she was an acclaimed author and translator. Her translations in particular won 
her high praise from critics.  She had a wide circle of friends that included many of the literary 
luminaries of the New York scene, including Richard Watson Gilder, an editor of Scribner’s 
Monthly, and his wife Helena. What we do not hear of at any point is Emma entertaining the 
thought of or preparing for marriage. 
Although more women at this time were making their voices heard in arenas outside the home, 
the expectation for most was that they would eventually marry and produce a family. We do 
not know whether Emma felt any such pressure from her family, but given the amount of 
support they provided her, it seems unlikely. 
New York City in the 1880’s was the place to be if you had any type of talent at all, and Emma 
was a vital part of that lifestyle. She attended literary soirees and public lectures, and was most 
likely a sought-after guest at many of the city’s top society doings. 
The 1880’s were also a time of great upheaval in Russia. With the assassination of Alexander II, 
harsh laws were enacted against the Russian Jews, many of whom fled to the United States. 
While Emma was not at the forefront of the protests against the atrocities committed by 
Russian Christians against the Jews, she seemed to be transformed after meeting some of the 
immigrants. Her writing changed, taking on a martial tone and she became the American 
spokesperson for a re-nationalized Palestine. 
In addition to being the spokesperson for her religion to her circle of friends and acquaintances, 
and to the city of New York as a whole, Emma introduced among her own wealthy, settled 
Jewish circle the lifestyles and political beliefs of the recent immigrants, as well as pushing the 
need for education and training for these mostly poor and uneducated former farmers and 
small tradesmen. 
After a trip to Europe where she met with some of the most prominent literary figures there, 
including Robert Browning, her writings and thinking seemed to become more universal, less 
directly tied to the idea of a Palestinian homeland. Then, following her father’s death, she left 
with her sisters on a projected 18 month tour of Europe. It was during this time that she was 
diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease and was dead at the age of 38. 
 
 
 
 
Jewish immigrants in Emma’s lifetime (Slide 10) 
“1492 
Thou two-faced year, Mother of Change and Fate,  
Didst weep when Spain cast forth with flaming sword,  
The children of the prophets of the Lord,  
Prince, priest, and people, spurned by zealot hate.  
Hounded from sea to sea, from state to state,  
The West refused them, and the East abhorred.  
No anchorage the known world could afford,  
Close-locked was every port, barred every gate.  
Then smiling, thou unveil'dst, O two-faced year,  
A virgin world where doors of sunset part,  
Saying, "Ho, all who weary, enter here!  
There falls each ancient barrier that the art  
Of race or creed or rank devised, to rear  
Grim bulwarked hatred between heart and heart!" 
During Emma’s lifetime, there was a shift in climate toward more overt anti-Semitism.  As 
countries like Russia sought to remove the Jews living among them, and the rates of 
immigration of Jews from Europe climbed, the United States saw a backlash of anti-Semitism as 
well. Interestingly, members of NYC’s Jewish elite were considered immune from this; for 
example, Judge Henry Hilton, who denied admittance to his hotel German Jewish immigrants, 
said that those Jews in Emma’s circle, who could trace their ancestry in America to colonial 
times, were the “true Hebrews”…not those dirty, unwashed and uncouth newcomers. 
However, even among the elite there were subtle forms of discrimination and prejudice, and 
Emma understood quite well what those polite upper-class exteriors could hide. 
While Emma’s life was one of privilege, the majority of Jews, particularly recent immigrants 
faced a very different reality. Like other immigrants of the mid-to-late 19th century, Jews who 
immigrated to America often came with few possessions and little money. They lived in 
tenements and took whatever jobs they could find. Because of their religion, they faced a great 
deal of prejudice, so they tended to live in the same neighborhoods and shop in the same 
markets.  They could be denied jobs, harassed by law enforcement, even looked down upon by 
other immigrants who were in reality no better off that the Jews. 
IMMIGRATION DURING EMMA’S LIFETIME 
It was not only Jews who were mistrusted because of their religious beliefs, of course. The large 
influx of Irish immigrants during and after the Great Famine was looked upon with suspicion in 
part due to their Catholicism. However, despite the similarities in their conditions, there is no 
evidence to suggest that the two groups banded together. Newly arrived immigrant groups 
tended to stick to “their own kind”; those who had been here a generation or more tended to 
look down on the more recent arrivals.  
Despite the ideas of religious freedom that are considered integral to our government, and the 
early tolerance shown by some of our founding fathers such as Jefferson and Franklin, the 
reality is that the backbone of the country was formed on white, western European thought 
and culture, and these tended to be solidified as the republic grew. And, while the framers of 
the Constitution managed to inject it with religious neutrality, not all politicians were content 
with the lack of any requirement for a religious test for citizenship. William Lancaster, delegate 
to the North Carolina convention to ratify the Constitution,said: 
“Let us remember that we form a government for millions not yet in existence.... In the 
course of four or five hundred years, I do not know how it will work. This is most certain, 
that Papists may occupy that chair, and Mahometans may take it. I see nothing against 
it.” 
 
Slide 11: Emma wrote: 
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame 
With conquering limbs astride from land to land; 
Here 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 
With silent lips.  "Give me your tired, your poor, 
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, 
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, 
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, 
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" 
 
.  While invoking her Classical education in the writing of the sonnet, she differentiates our 
colossus from that of the ancient wonder at Rhodes. While she welcomes on the one hand, the 
line “The wretched refuse of your teeming shores” seems to underscore the reality of the 
treatment new immigrant groups generally were subjected to—second-class citizens in a way. 
 
 
 
 
EMMA’S WRITINGS AND INVOLVEMENTS 
 
After reading George Eliot’s “Daniel Deronda”, Emma began to take more of an interest in the 
plight of Jews who immigrated to the U.S. due to pogroms against them in their native Russia. 
One result of her new-found zeal to help her fellow Jews is the volume “Songs of a Semite The 
dance to death and other poems.” It also deals with her crusade for a Palestinian homeland, 
several decades before the concept of Zionism was articulated. 
 
 
THE BANNER OF THE JEW. 
 
Wake, Israel, wake ! Recall to-day 
The glorious Maccabean rage, 
The sire heroic, hoary-gray, 
His five-fold lion-lineage : 
The Wise, the Elect, the Help-of-God, 
The Burst-of-Spring, the Avenging Rod. * 
From Mizpeh's mountain-ridge they saw 
Jerusalem's empty streets, her shrine 
Laid waste where Greeks profaned the Law, 
With idol and with pagan sign. 
Mourners in tattered black were there. 
With ashes sprinkled on their hair. 
Then from the stony peak there rang 
A blast to ope the graves : down poured 
The Maccabean clan, who sang 
Their battle-anthem to the Lord. 
Five heroes lead, and following, see, 
Ten thousand rush to victory ! 
Oh for Jerusalem's trumpet now, 
To blow a blast of shattering power. 
To wake the sleepers high and low, 
And rouse them to the urgent hour ! 
No hand for vengeance— but to save, 
A million naked swords should wave. 
Oh deem not dead that martial fire, 
Say not the mystic flame is spent ! 
With Moses' law and David's lyre, 
Your ancient strength remains unbent. 
Let but an Ezra rise anew, 
To lift the Banner of the Jew ! 
A rag, a mock at first — erelong, 
When men have bled and women wept, 
To guard its precious folds from wrong, 
Even they who shrunk, even they who slept. 
Shall leap to bless it, and to save. 
Strike ! for the brave revere the brave ! 
 
*The sons of Mattathias — Jonathan, John, Eleazar, Simon  
(also called the Jewel), and Judas, the Prince.  
 
MODERN IMMIGRANTS slide 15 
The United States has remained a beacon of hope for the poor and oppressed of other nations 
throughout the 20th and into the 21st century. Yet, Americans in general are increasingly 
concerned about immigration, feeling that immigrants are a burden to the country and create 
strains on the health care system while taking jobs and housing. Others worry about the 
cultural impact of the latest group of immigrants. It is a highly divisive issue—according to Pew 
Research Center, about as many Americans believe that immigrants strengthen our society as 
believe that they threaten traditional American values. The issue of illegal immigrants is a 
particularly divisive one. 
While news sources tend most often to highlight illegal Latino immigrants, the increase in 
Muslims immigrating to the United States began after 2001 to seem like a potential threat to 
the war on terrorism in this country.  
In 2005, Steven A. Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, wrote;  
“... a large Middle Eastern immigrant population makes it easier for Islamic extremists to 
operate within the U.S. The September 11 hijackers used Middle Eastern immigrant 
communities for cover. The Washington Post has reported that two 9/11 hijackers who 
lived in San Diego got help from "mosques and established members of [the city's] 
Islamic community" to "find housing, open a bank account, obtain car insurance—even, 
at one point, get a job."  
 
Most immigrants, however, come to the United States for the same reasons people have come 
here since the earliest times: in search of a better life, free of religious persecution and where 
their basic civil rights will be honored. We must be cautious in evaluating these newcomers as 
individuals rather than lumping them into a single group, and recall that the Lady still stands in 
New York Harbor as a symbol of freedom from oppression and the beginnings of the golden 
American dream. 
 
 
 
 
  
Emma Lazarus in her world: Life and letters by Bette Roth Young Google books 
Emma Lazarus in Her World: Life and Letters - Bette Roth Young - Google Books 
Jewish Women’s Archive :Women of Valor   
Women of Valor - Emma Lazarus - Introduction | Jewish Women's Archive 
Songs of a Semite: The Dance to Death, AND OTHER POEMS,  
EMMA LAZARUS NEW YORK . OFFICE OF "THE AMERICAN HEBREW, 1882 
Songs of a Semite : The dance to death and other poems : Lazarus, Emma, 1849-1887 : Free 
Download & Streaming : Internet Archive 
 
Opposing Viewpoints: 
Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context - Search Results 


Emma Lazarus: Voice of Liberty

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