More Exploration

While working on this project I have come across many interesting things about Emma Lazarus that I was not aware of at the beginning. Even with trying to find personal information on her (which was barely available) I could not find the amount of information one would think would be available on such an inspiration to not only America but also Jewish women. While searching for more information I came across a website called, Jewish Women's Archive: Sharing Stories Inspiring Change (http://jwa.org/search/site/Emma%20Lazarus). 

This archive has given me a lot more information about her. For instance "While Emma's devout ancestors and relatives were actively involved with the Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue in New York, her immediate family was "outlawed" among the Lazarus clan because they were no longer religiously observant. Moses Lazarus (her father) sought instead to place his family among their Christian peers. However, while Emma's friends were almost all Christian, she was usually referred to and seen as a "Jewess." I found this very interesting, because as she grew up she became more aware of her Jewish culture, she also became a widely known Jewish American author. I also found it very interesting that she visited Russian Jewish refugees and also volunteered at the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. She later became and advocate for the new arrivals and helped those who had just arrived to America. This led to her being asked to write a poem (The New Colossus) to be placed on the Statue of Liberty.

Something in which I came across while searching this archive was the Emma Lazarus Federation of Jewish Women's Clubs, which is a a progressive women's group. This federation was formed to "provide relief to wartime victims, but especially to combat antisemitism and racism and to nurture positive Jewish identification." The group is comprised largely of Yiddish-speaking women, who came from the Emma Lazarus division. Emma Lazarus was a women who stood for Jewish culture and women's freedom which is why this federation was in her honor. She also was a very admirable symbol of secular, humanistic values. Because of the Emma Lazarus Federation of Jewish Women's Clubs, New York and Miami now have a declared Emma Lazarus Day. There were "chapters in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Miami, Rochester, Newark, Jersey City, Lakewood, and Toms River, New Jersey," and they maintained "educational and political activities for almost forty years, attracting approximately 4,000 to 5,000 members in 100 clubs at its peak." Sadly, the federation disbanded in 1989, though some individual clubs did remain.  

The information on the Jewish culture is being taken from http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com

The poem below written by Emma Lazarus is a sonnet in which was she was writing about a dream in which she apparently had, which I found very interesting. In the way in which I read it, it explains how she may in fact have had romantic feelings towards women. While she was alive and writing, women's writing was tended to not be take seriously, which is something that made things a little more difficult for her. Yet, she would take her difficulties and turn them into poems in which helped her make a name for herself.

(The sonnet below is all one stanza but I will be breaking it up in order to better analyze and discuss it)

Assurance

Last night I slept, and when I woke her kiss
Still floated on my lips.

The first line of the sonnet displays this dream as having "her kiss" floating on her lips. This is why I drew the conclusion that Emma may have in fact had been attracted to the same sex, even if she did not realize it.

For we had strayed
Together in my dream, through some dim glade,



Where the shy moonbeams scarce dared light our bliss.

 This is where she explains that this was a dream she had and how her and this other woman had stayed together throughout the dream. She explains happy they were and that they were being hit by the light of the moon.

The air was dank with dew, between the trees,
The hidden glow-worms kindled and were spent.

 This line above is probably one of my favorites within this sonnet. The imagery she used was absolutely beautiful. I can truly smell the dew in the air and I can imagine the sight of the glow-worms hidden among the trees. This helps the reader know what Emma and this women were seeing and can give a sense of being there to the reader as well.



Cheek pressed to cheek, the cool, the hot night-breeze

 With this one single line, you can sense the woman's cheek being pressed up against hers and you can sense the tingly coolness it sent through her body followed by the hot night-breeze.

Mingled ouir hair, our breath, and came and went,
As sporting with our passion.
  
You can now sense the mingling of the hair, and the breath between the two of them and how it was pauses in between because of the passion between them.

Low and deep
Spake in mine ear her voice: "And didst thou dream,
This could be buried? This could be sleep?
And love be thrall to death! Nay, whatso seem,
Have faith, dear heart; this is the thing that is!"

Low and deep the woman spoke into Emma's ear and explained that this is her dream it could be buried, which I took as her conscious hiding this part of who she is. She explained how it could just be sleep, but either way she loves her to death. She tells her to have faith, because what shes feeling is true. 

Thereon I woke, and on my lips her kiss.


The end of this sonnet brings us right back to the beginning where the woman's kiss were upon Emma's lips.  

In the Jewish Synagogue at Newport

The interpretations of the Emma Lazarus poem will be written in purple in between the stanzas...

and the information on the Jewish culture is being taken from http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com

In the Jewish Synagogue at Newport

Emma Lazarus

"Here, where the noises of the busy town, 

The ocean's plunge and roar can enter not,
We stand and gaze around with tearful awe,
And muse upon the consecrated spot.

This is explaining where exactly the Jewish Synagogue is in Newport. It is within a busy town by an ocean in which cannot be heard within the synagogue walls. Within the synagogue they stand in awe of what is in front of them.

 
No signs of life are here: the very prayers
Inscribed around are in a language dead;
The light of the "perpetual lamp" is spent
That an undying radiance was to shed.

This is explaining that the prayers of the Jewish religion are disintegrating and the language is as well. Less and less people are taking part in the traditions of the Jewish religion. The individuals whom are Jewish do realize what their religion is, but with the times changing so are the individuals. The "perpetual light" is something that is important to the Jewish religion. It is typically  a lamp which consists of a glass vessel which is containing a wick burning in olive-oil. It is also usually suspended from the ceiling in front of the "Holy Ark" within the synagogue. The tradition of this lamp is that it is never allowed to go out, while the other six lamps in the synagogue only burned during the night.

What prayers were in this temple offered up,
Wrung from sad hearts that knew no joy on earth,
By these lone exiles of a thousand years,
From the fair sunrise land that gave them birth!

The history of the Jews is one in which is filled with death and exile. The Jews were filled with sadness and despair. Especially, from the land of Israel that gave them birth. In 597 Israelites who were deported had high hopes for their speedy return home. They had given credence to the sayings of the false prophets who had flattered them and they had come to regard themselves as the true Israel, even though they had not truly conformed to what the true prophets had imaged as the ideal Israel. The Israelites expectations were detroyed when Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 and they were then compelled to follow the advice of Jeremiah and get used to the conditions of protracted exile. This also refers to stanza 7.

How as we gaze, in this new world of light,
Upon this relic of the days of old,
The present vanishes, and tropic bloom
And Eastern towns and temples we behold.


Again we see the patriarch with his flocks,
The purple seas, the hot blue sky o'erhead,
The slaves of Egypt, -- omens, mysteries, --
Dark fleeing hosts by flaming angels led.

These two stanzas explain that there is a will to flea from the past but without the past the Jews would not be where they are today and things would be completely different. And even with a dark past it has come to be a brighter future in which is still being developed.

A wondrous light upon a sky-kissed mount,
A man who reads Jehovah's written law,
'Midst blinding glory and effulgence rare,
Unto a people prone with reverent awe.

 The pride of luxury's barbaric pomp,
In the rich court of royal Solomon --
Alas! we wake: one scene alone remains, --
The exiles by the streams of Babylon.
 
Our softened voices send us back again
But mournful echoes through the empty hall:
Our footsteps have a strange unnatural sound,
And with unwonted gentleness they fall.

The weary ones, the sad, the suffering,
All found their comfort in the holy place,
And children's gladness and men's gratitude
'Took voice and mingled in the chant of praise.
 
The funeral and the marriage, now, alas!
We know not which is sadder to recall;
For youth and happiness have followed age,
And green grass lieth gently over all.

With the funeral they are bringing an old life to a close and with the marriage they are beginning a whole new life. And new beginnings are ones in which are happy moments. 

 
Nathless the sacred shrine is holy yet,
With its lone floors where reverent feet once trod.
Take off your shoes as by the burning bush,
Before the mystery of death and God."


This poem really shows the Jewish religion and shows a lot of Jewish themes as shown above. Emma Lazarus definitely has a way with words and making her writing flow. I am really looking forward to the rest of this project and reading many more of her works. I will be looking for more Jewish themes within her writing as I continue reading her poems. Also, with the very little information about her life, I will also be looking at that in terms of how it may relate to her writing and see if there are any themes there. 

The pictures shown below are the actual Synagogue in Newport R.I. It is a national historic site.

 If it can't be read the plaque above reads:

"National Historic Site - Touro Synagogue of Jeshuat Israel Congregation founded 1658 - This oldest synagogue building in the United States was designed by Peter Harrison. Ground was broken August 1, 1759.   It was dedicated on December 2, 1763.  Here 1781-84 the Rhode Island General Assembly met, and during Washington's visit to Newport in 1781 a town meeting was held here.  The State Supreme Court held sessions here at that period.  The building was reopened for religious services on August 2, 1850.  In 1790 George Washington wrote to this congregation that..."happily the Government of the United States...gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance."

The New Colossus

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-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” 

This is the sonnet written by Emma Lazarus in which can be seen on the golden plaque which sits at the base of the Statue of Liberty. This sonnet shows the distinctions between the new and old worlds. The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of new beginnings and was a welcome to the new land. The line, "A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoned lightning" is one in which explains the Statue of Liberty to a T and funny enough this sonnet was written before the Statue of Liberty was even built. It explains how the Statue of Liberty is a check in point for a new life and everyone is welcome into the new land. She sits upon the harbor of New York City, and when she was seen by immigrants they could breathe a sigh of relief because they knew that they have finally become free from their old lives and could not make a better life for them and their families. The sonnet is also implying that America can take care of others far better than any other country could which is why more individuals moved to America. America was seen as a place where the American dream could become a reality and the Statue of Liberty was the "golden door" to this new life.  

Who is Emma Lazarus?

Emma Lazarus was born on July 22, 1849 in New York City. She was the fourth of seven children born to Moses Lazarus and Esther Nathan whom were Sephardic Jews. She was born into a distinct Jewish upper class. She is best known for her sonnet "The New Colossus," which was written in 1883. It's words appear on a bronze plaque in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty which was placed there in 1903. She traveled to Europe twice and when she returned from her second trip she was seriously ill and died two months later on November 19, 1887. It was most likely from a Hodgkin's Lymphoma. There is not much other information about Emma Lazarus because she lived a very private life in which has remained hidden.