|
Part of the American
History & Genealogy Project |
Emma Lazarus 1849 ~ 1887
Emma Lazarus
A prominent Jewish educator has recently
said, in speaking of his people in America, "We cannot boast
such a poet as Heine, a soldier in the intellectual war of
liberation which has freed European thought from its mediaeval
shackles, but there did bloom amongst us the delicate flower of
Emma Lazarus' work." And, Indeed, it is to be doubted whether
poetic feeling, and the strength of this young writer's work has
been excelled by any other American author.
Emma Lazarus was born in New York City, July 22, 1849 and
despite the fact that death came to her just as she had reached
her prime she had gained a place and made a mark in literature
far above the achievements of many eminent lives well rounded by
age. She was the daughter of Moses Lazarus, a well-known
merchant of New York, and received a literary education under
private tutors. Her attainments included Hebrew, Greek and Latin
and modem languages. Even in her childhood she was noted for her
quickness and intelligence and her text-book education she
herself broadened by her reading on religious, philosophical and
scientific subjects until she became a profound thinker. Her
literary bent displayed itself when at seventeen years of age
she published a volume of poems, "Admetus." which at
once attracted attention by the remarkable character of the work
and which brought her many flattering notices.
In 1874 she produced her first important work, "Alide,"
a romance founded on the episodes in the early life of Goethe.
Some translations from Heine that followed were even more
successful in making her known. In 1880 was begun the
publication of the work to which she had for some time addressed
herself, upon the position, history and wrongs of her people.
This first book was called "Sons of the Semite" and
opened with a five-act tragedy called "The Dance of Death,"
dealing with the stories of Jewish persecution in the fifteenth
century. She wrote for the Century a number of striking essays
on Jewish topics, among which were "Russian Christianity vs.
Modem Judaism," "The Jewish Problem," and "Was
the Earl of Beaconsfield a Representative Jew?" Her work
also includes critical articles on Salvini, Emerson and others.
In the winter of 1882, when many Russian Jews were flocking to
New York City to escape Russian persecution, Miss Lazarus
published in the American Hebrew stories and articles solving
the question of occupation for the newcomers. Her plan involved
industrial and technical education, and the project was carried
out along that line. Her last work was published in the Century
in May, 1887. It was a series of poems in prose entitled "By
the Waters of Babylon," and the attention it excited and
the admiration accorded it were general, here as well as across
the Atlantic.
Miss Lazarus died November 19, 1887.
There was no art to which she did not respond with splendid
appreciation, music, painting, poetry and drama, she felt
keenly, intelligently and generously the special charm of each.
For moral ideas she had the keenness of her race. She had, too,
that genius for friendship which so few fully understood. That
such a nature should have formed close ties of intellectual
sympathy with men of the character of Emerson, in America, and
Browning, in England, is not a matter of surprise.
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
|