#emma lazarus

[notaplaceofhonour]

There’s something so blood-curdlingly insidious about tearing the phrase “until we are all free, none of us are free” from the pages of Emma Lazarus’s Epistle to the Hebrews—a series of open letters calling for American Jews to build solidarity with Jews across the world & help establish a Jewish state—and throwing it back in Jews’ face with accusations of genocide, libelous misrepresentations of Zionism, & calls for the destruction of Israel.

Jews—and specifically Zionist Jews—helped build the progressive left. You don’t have to be a Zionist to not misrepresent what Zionism is, to not slander & demonize Jews for their connection to Israel. You don’t get to stand on the shoulders of Zionist Jews like Magnus Hirschfeld, Emma Lazarus, and Harvey Milk whose Zionism was not only compatible but integral to their contributions to other progressive causes and then pretend that Zionism is the epitome of evil—racism, fascism, apartheid, genocide.

[chanaleah]

it’s pretty ironic how much anti-zionists quote Emma Lazarus

“None of us are free until all of us are free!” Like yes girl that quote is generally accredited to Emma Lazarus, who was a Zionist and ALSO was speaking about Jewish refugees fleeing antisemitic violence in Russia

Anyways Emma Lazarus is my favorite poet so here’s some facts about her while I wait in an airport for my flight to take off

She was descended from Sephardic Jews who fled the inquisition and settled in the Americas in the 1600s

Most of her poems revolved around Jewish themes

She wrote the famous poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty, “The New Colossus”

She volunteered with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society helping Jewish refugees from Russia get settled in the US

She was a Zionist over a decade before the modern Zionist movement was founded, and advocated for the creation of a Jewish homeland in Eretz Yisrael and wrote essays against antisemitism

And here is a passage from my favorite Emma Lazarus poem, “In Exile”

Strange faces theirs, wherethrough the Orient sun / Gleams from the eyes and glows athwart the skin. / Grave lines of studious thought and purpose run / From curl-crowned forehead to dark-bearded chin. / And over all the seal is stamped thereon/ Of anguish branded by a world of sin, / In fire and blood through ages on their name, / Their seal of glory and the Gentiles' shame.

Freedom to love the law that Moses brought,/ To sing the songs of David, and to think / The thoughts Gabirol to Spinoza taught, / Freedom to dig the common earth, to drink / The universal air—for this they sought / Refuge o'er wave and continent, to link / Egypt with Texas in their mystic chain, / And truth's perpetual lamp forbid to wane.

If you want to read more here is an article I can recommend you: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/emma-lazarus

[seraphinesaintclair]

Emma Lazarus, “Faerie.”

[mylight-png]

"None of us are free until all of us are free." We know this phrase, whether we've used it or had it used against us. Many, too many, people used it to try justifying Oct 7th and the theoretical destruction of Israel.

Such usage of her words would have Emma Lazarus rolling in her grave. Lazarus was in fact a prominent Zionist, and her original words, "Until we are all free, we are none of us free" were meant to encourage international Jewish solidarity. If we were to add clarification to this quote it would be, "Until we (Jews) are all free (from persecution and antisemitism), we (Jews) are none of us free (from persecution and antisemitism)."

It was meant to encourage the creation of a Jewish state, the creation of Israel. It tells Jews who feel secure in their diaspora experiences that they cannot be free and safe from antisemitism until they can create a free and safe state for their less secure counterparts.

This quote has been taken out of its original context, has had its meaning mangled and manipulated, and has been appropriated to be used against the very purpose it was created for.

As such, it is time to reclaim these words. To use them as they were written to be used.

Until we are all free, we are none of us free

Until all of the hostages are free, no Jew is free.

Until all of Israel is free from constant threat, no Jew is free.

Until all Jews are free, no Jew is free.

[aqlstar]

Petition for antizionist goyim to leave Emma Lazarus alone please.

(Looking at you, Chappell Roan)

And shame on every single news outlet that reported on it without mentioning the sick irony of twisting Lazarus’s words to call for the destruction of Israel.

[girlactionfigure]

Emma Lazarus

Born on 1849 in New York City to a family of Portuguese Sephardic Jewish descent whose roots extended to the very early days of NYC as a British colonial city.

Lazarus was the poet who wrote in 1883 "The New Colossus" - the famous poem that greets new immigrants to America till this day.

“...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!”

With those words, the Statue of Liberty was given life and purpose beyond that of a monument to liberal ideals, becoming a beacon of hope for the refugees seeking freedom from the terror of persecution.

The poem was placed on the Statue of Liberty in 1903 (after her death).

Aside from writing, Lazarus was also involved in charitable work for refugees.

At Ward's Island, she worked as an aide for Jewish immigrants who had been detained by Castle Garden immigration officials.

She was deeply moved by the plight of the Russian Jews she met there and these experiences influenced her writing.

The Jewish themes she had never dealt with before erupted in her work.

Emma Lazarus died November 19, 1887 (aged 38) in New York City, most likely from Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Lazarus was buried in Beth Olam Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Her papers are kept by the American Jewish Historical Society, Center for Jewish History, and her letters are collected at Columbia University.

Jewish History, Jewish Culture & Spirit

[nickysfacts]

Hate like antisemitism, homophobia, racism, zionism, or sexism most never be tolerated, as once we allow hate to have a voice they will consume the tolerant and we then will lose the liberty that we adore so much.

🇺🇸🗽🇺🇸

[eretzyisrael]

On June 17, 1885, the Statue of Liberty arrived at its permanent home in New York Harbor. But did you know that Emma Lazarus, the American poet whose famous words are inscribed on its pedestal, was Jewish?

Lazarus was born in 1849 to a large Sephardic family in New York City. Her ancestors were among the first Jewish immigrants to arrive in New Amsterdam after fleeing the Portuguese Inquisition in 1654.

The celebrated words of Lazarus’s 1883 sonnet “The New Colossus” have greeted countless immigrants and refugees upon their arrival to the United States. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” -Emma Lazarus Contributor:

@jggoltz

Humans of Judaism

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Statue of Liberty, New York USA by Batistini Gaston on Flickr.

* * * *

“The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus:

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!”

David Bromwich parses Lazarus’ message:

Like other late Romantics, she believed in republican freedom and the religion of the heart; they went together naturally and might be known to each other under the name of “sympathy.” … Americans, the poem says, must never forget what it is to be weak and comfortless. For me to know, through the workings of sympathy, that “heroic forms” have passed through a crisis like mine, can be a liberation in itself.

[vitagraphia]

[notaplaceofhonour]

every time an anti-zionist quotes the mother of zionism a zionist gets their wings

[artofmyart]

Sketchaday #torch

A sketch of the torch held by the Statue of Liberty.

[seraphinesaintclair]

Emma Lazarus, “Grief.”

[apenitentialprayer]

Rose Hawthorne Lathrop (May 20th, 1851 - July 9th, 1926), the daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne. The left picture is of her as a young lady, the right picture is the last picture of her ever taken. Rose Hawthorne dedicated her life to serving the poorest of the cancer-ridden poor, after two experiences; the first was the loss of her friend Emma Lazarus (of "The New Colossus" fame) to cancer in 1887. The second was her discovery of the fact that New York City hospitals would not house cancer patients once their prognosis became terminal, leaving those without a means of housing themselves to die in obscurity. As Mother Mary Alphonsa, Hawthorne worked to serve those who were dying of cancer in order to give them a sense of comfort and dignity in their final weeks and months. Taking Saint Vincent de Paul's maxim for the poor (the first of the quotes below) as a personal motto, she sought to further and further identify herself and her wards with the living Christ.

I am for God and the poor.

God and the poor await us side by side.

[amagnificentobsession]

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!”

Emma Lazarus 1849 -1887

[goddess-of-alchemy]