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Emma Lazarus

esther schor

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Winner of the National Jewish Book Award

The definitive biography of the poet whose sonnet "The New Colossus" appears on the base of the Statue of Liberty, welcoming immigrants to their new home.

Emma Lazarus’s most famous poem gave a voice to the Statue of Liberty, but her remarkable life has remained a mystery until now. She was a woman so far ahead of her time that we are still scrambling to catch up with her–-a feminist, a Zionist, and an internationally famous Jewish American writer before these categories even existed.

Drawing upon a cache of personal letters undiscovered until the 1980s, Esther Schor brings this vital woman to life in all her complexity. Born into a wealthy Sephardic family in 1849, Lazarus published her first volume of verse at seventeen and gained entrée into New York’s elite literary circles. Although she once referred to her family as “outlaw” Jews, she felt a deep attachment to Jewish history and peoplehood. Her compassion for the downtrodden Jews of Eastern Europe–-refugees whose lives had little in common with her own–-helped redefine the meaning of America itself.

In this groundbreaking biography, Schor argues persuasively for Lazarus’s place in history as a poet, an activist, and a prophet of the world we all inhabit today–a world that she helped to invent.

Jewish Encounters Series

368 pages, Hardcover

First published September 5,2006
Literary awards
nation­al jew­ish book awards, 

This edition

Format
368 pages, Hardcover
Published
September 5, 2006 by Schocken
ISBN
9780805242164
ASIN
0805242163
Language
English

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About the author

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esther schor

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Community Reviews

Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 12 votes)
5 stars
4(33%)
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5(42%)
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12 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
xchronicles
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Very informative about the history of Jews in America and other tidbits of history. I love her poetry, I do not agree that most of it is dated. I think it still has something to say to us today. Unfortunately those in power in America today would be too stupid to even begin to understand it.
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_Sofi_
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Emma Lazarus was a fascinating woman who was ahead of her time. While the writing style of the book was sometimes dense I really enjoyed learning about this amazing woman.
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mirelavx
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I'm giving this book five stars not because it's the best biography ever on Emma Lazarus, but because it's a great history of the time in which she lived and contains some of her best poems-- my new favorite poet.

The author's interpretation of some of Lazarus' poems is just that-- an interpretation which seems a bit stretched. The knowledge that her great Colossus was based on her burgeoning knowledge of the constant wondering of the Jewisg refugees breathes new life into that statue for me.
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_Bella_04
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Emma Lazarus, in my ignorance, was a penniless liberal with a revolutionary concept that the USA should be a haven for refugees. NOT! Esther Schor paints a portrait of this socially connected intellectual of means. Lazarus, the poet, had a voluminous output. Every event yielded poetry. She made herself the center of the contemporary literary circles. Shy, retiring and ladylike she was not. An enlightening, well researched and well written work.
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habibisuckslol
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This book, what can I say...

It is definitely a book only a scholar can read. Schor proves she is an English professor. This story could have been told and have been a much better read if you didn't constantly need a dictionary or thesaurus. I liken myself to history scholar status, but this was a long and hard read.
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mkr1228
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I came to this book through a Bowery Boys podcast about Emma Lazarus and the Statue of Liberty. Here is the link for anyone interested in listening: http://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2018...

They recommended it as background reading, and it was very illuminating. I knew just a little about Lazarus before listening to the podcast, and was inspired to learn more. Schor's book is a scholarly, but not at all dull, portrait of Lazarus as a poet, philanthropist and early Zionist. She was one of the leading literary women of her time, and moved in illustrious circles, as a friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry James and many others.

Schor's book is meticulously researched and provides not just the facts about Lazarus but presents a very thorough view of the time and place in which she lived. We come to understand her relationship to her heritage, the society of the time, and gain an understanding of the burgeoning culture and blossoming of the arts in the United States in the decades following the Civil War.

Well worth a read for anyone interested in Lazarus, literary life in the United States of those years, and of American history in general.



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Abunai_Shadow
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I think the Gettysburg Address most perfectly crystallized what America is, but it took Emma Lazarus, in a little poem meant to raise money for a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty, to capture what America is *for*.

So like, we all know the legend of Lincoln, but what was Emma's deal?

Turns out pretty interesting! As I learned from this solid biography. She was a poetry prodigy who caught the attention of fancy people like Emerson (who everyone raves about but seems like kind of a dick?). She writes a lot about what it means to be a secular Jew in America and becomes a bit of a thought leader there. She gets really into helping the waves of Jews who have arrived in New York fleeing pogroms and becomes a big advocate of a Jewish homeland before zionism is really thing. But also has a bit of sheltered spoiled rich girl vibe. Maybe bi? Died a spinster at 38 (ouch).

Does a good job presenting context without giving you an entire history of American letters and Jewish thought. Sometimes veers a little bit into interpretation and reading between the lines, but honestly that's fine.
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Sir_Foxy
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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To whom does the poem belong?

A fascinating look back at what brought about a poem that is suppose to represent the spirit of America. I can only wonder what Emma might think of the state we find ourselves.
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