Emma Lazarus

Emma Lazarus (The New York Historical Society (Engraving by T. Johnson, 1872))

 Emma Lazarus's famous lines captured the spirit and soul of the United States which, at the time, was just emerging as a power on the world stage.

Written in 1883, her celebrated poem, "The New Colossus," is engraved on the foundation of the Statue of Liberty. Her sonnet has become an integral part of the soul of American culture reflecting our historic passion for compassion. This compassion extended not only to those who had newly immigrated to the United States but for those of us who were already a part of the wonderful diversity of this country and who in our ancestral past were also “strangers in a strange land.”

Emma Lazarus was a successful author and a member of New York’s literary elite. She was also as a Jewish American woman. As such she belonged to two worlds with often conflicting values. As a woman, she lived in an era which had yet to give women the right to vote and treated people of her faith with virulent prejudice. Given her status as a member of the literary elite, she could have chosen to “fit in.”  However, as a woman and as a Jew she chose not to be silent. 

She used her experience to give the depth and power of voice to those who were and are marginalized because of gender, religion, race, ethnicity, nationality and socioeconomic status. In doing so, she  gave ALL American’s an inspirational and aspirational message of compassion that has been embedded in our collective consciousness. As I say this compassion was not limited to r refugees who seek “shelter from the storms” of war, oppression, famines, genocide and persecution but also it was a call to compassion for all of us who ,though different  in religion, race, ethnicity, nationality , sexual preference,  have called the United States of America home for  generations and Indigenous Americans who’ve called this land home for 1000’s of years.

For me that’s why the hateful rhetoric of this election season seems so, well, “counter cultural.” I know, as a victim of hate herself ,   she would be horrified at the 115% increase in hate crimes since November 9, 2016. She’d be shocked at the millions of people who considered moving out of the country and the thousands who actually applied for residency in other countries because they feared that they would not be welcome in their own home land.

So I wondered to myself, “What would Emma Lazarus have us do, 134 years after she penned her poem?”

For starters, as she witnessed the exponential rise in racism, rankism, nationalism, protectionism and isolationism, she might observe our nation is strong in spirit and not so strong in soul. She’d observe, that even those of us who have been here for generations feel like exiles in our own land.

Having made that diagnosis, she’d have us go and visit the Statue of Liberty. She’d remind us how the Statue of Liberty has become a precious symbol of who we are and what we aspire to be as a nation.  You see, to me, the Statue of Liberty itself symbolizes the spirit of our country and Emma Lazarus’ sonnet symbolizes the soul of our country.

There’s a difference between the spirit and the soul.

The spirit has to do with energy, the animating life force that drives us to do what we do.  The soul has to do with the” ground of our being” and it is that “soul” which brings a sense of meaning and purpose to our lives.

The Statue of Liberty symbolizes the spirit of our nation, our love of liberty, our love of freedom.  The Bill of Rights that we so cherish, this is also an indication of the spirit of our country.  We do have freedoms that many people in the rest of the world do not enjoy.

To see the spirit of our nation, you can be quite a distance away, but to see the soul of our nation, you have to get up quite close to see these beautiful words:

As I said, to me, this is the soul of our nation. With this poem, the Statue of Liberty is not only a statue of liberty but a “Statue of Hospitality” for those who live in this country and who are “different” as well as those who see hope in the shining light of the “lamp beside the golden door.” Then she’d have us look at our own family albums to see how most of benefited from the liberty and hospitality this “Mother of Exiles” symbolizes. She’d have us look at the rich diversity of our country reminding us that without our soul of liberty and hospitality for all who passed through “the golden door” we would not enjoy the rich diversity and expressions of cultures, races, religions, sexuality, nationalities all of which make America great.  In fact, she’d say that she wrote this poem because she herself had, in many ways, benefited from the open arms of hospitality our country exemplifies.

 In that spirit, I believe Emma Lazarus would also have us do an introspective inventory to see how we might be complicit in the apparent “normalization” of hateful and hurtful language and actions. Language and actions  which threaten to emotionally, spiritually and even physically exile and alienate people because of their religion, race, gender, sexual preference, ethnicity , social/economic status, and nationality.

She’d implore us to be vocal  advocates and activists for the: off-duty Muslim NYPD police woman whose son and her were shoved and threatened  just because she wore different clothing; the Hispanic students who were greeted  at school by chants of “Build the wall!”; the gay teenager who attempted suicide because the bullying “started all over again”, the girls and women whose reproductive rights have been threatened by those who appear to  have demonstrated little or no respect for girls and women; the workers who are denied a living wage while the 1% wallow in windfall profits and tax cuts; and mother earth who sustains us all but has been relegated to the status of regulatory inconvenience.

As a writer and a social activist, she would also  be aware of the “New McCarthyism” in the form of cyber bullying that threatens the free speech of CEO’s and union workers, actors and journalists and people of opposing political points of view.

She’d warn us that if we didn’t honor the integrity of the spirit and soul of our nation, there’s a real danger the world will begin to see our Statue of Liberty as a Statue of Bigotry and an even greater danger that we will come to see “ The Mother of Exiles” as a quaint relic of the past. 

I imagine Emma Lazarus would encourage us to re-embrace our destiny as “keepers of the Golden Door.” She would remind us that we are the “colossus”, drivers of the world economy, the big kid on the block, the most powerful nation the world has ever seen.

 As such we have it within our souls, to be a living and thriving example of “liberty and justice for all” those who live within our borders and those who yearn to see the light of hospitality that shines from the “lamp of the open door.” It may not be practical or even possible to open our door to mass immigration as we have in the past, but through economic, political and inter-cultural understanding and cooperation, we do have it within our power to help raise the standard of living for the people of the earth.