Emma Lazarus and Her life

Emma Lazarus was born to a rich family of Moses Lazarus and Esther Lazarus. Lazarus’ work was very creative and great. Emma Lazarus was born at that time in the society where females were not considered mainstream writers easily. She did a lot of hard work to be recognized as a mainstream writer.

In the year 1863, Emma Lazarus’ family was away from their home. It was a time when none of the Americans were safe from the effects of this war. The time was of American civil war when the people participating in the war came close to Emma’s house to burn it down. However, this did not happen.  In 1865, Emma Lazarus’ father close friend had died in the war. This was the time when she wrote a funeral poem or elegy for him. She was against the civil war and the poem had the following lines which made that fact evident.

“More hearts will break than gladden when

The bitter struggle’s past;

The giant form of Victory must

A giant’s shadow cast.”

During this time itself she wrote the poem “heroes” in which the narrator was a black American woman who talks about the reconciliation of blacks and whites. According to Emma Lazarus the true heroes were those who did not fight and accepted the life as normal life. This poem as if urged people to forget all the differences among them and live life not like blacks or whites but as true Americans.   

It was some years later that she read the novel ‘Daniel Deronda’ by George Eliot that she fully became interested in her Jewish identity. It was the year of 1881 when the death of Tsar Alexander II in Russia lead to anti-Semitic violence there and killings of thousands of innocent Jews. These Jews then immigrated to New York where their fellow Jews didn't welcome them. These attacks on Jews and the behavior of fellow Jews in New York caught attention of Emma Lazarus and saddened her deeply. She wrote numerous articles and poems condemning those attacks. She formed an institute for the Jewish immigrants where they were given vocational training.

1880 was the most productive period of Lazarus’ life this was when she became fully aware of herb Jewish identity and advocated the rights of Jews. It was during this period she wrote a poem like “song of the Semite’ in this poem she portrayed the pride of being a Jew and accepting and cherishing her Jewish roots. Her poems at this time were structured with Zionism and with a view to educate the Jews about their identity and how they should take pride in it.  

Her life took a turn in 1883, when the “Art Loan Fund Exhibition in Aid of the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund for the Statue of Liberty" requested Emma Lazarus to write an original poem for raising funds for the pedestal of statue of liberty. This poem became very famous and she is still known for writing it the poem’s name was ‘the new colossus’ but back then she had not even seen the statue and unfortunately she was dead before the statue was erected and sadly when the statue was erected the poem was not even mentioned. But few years later after her death her friends and family gifted the poem written on a bronze tablet to be installed on the pedestal of the statue and today the poem is still there.

    Emma Lazarus has inspired many people and however short may be her life she lived it to the fullest by doing what she liked the most and that is writing poems. And as some say “Emma Lazarus gave not only a voice to the Statue of Liberty, but a conscience to America”.