![]() ![]() ![]() Before long, Castle Garden was over capacity and New York City officials had to figure out what to do with the flood of immigrants. They were penniless, desperate, and homeless. Month after month, over 2,000 people arrived at Castle Garden in New York (the processing facility for immigrants before Ellis Island was built). There were pogroms in over 150 Russian and Ukrainian towns.Įaster European Jews fled to America. Mobs took matters into their own hands and the government refused to get involved. The Jewish community was blamed for the Tsar’s assassination. Petersburg in 1881, which set off a wave of anti-Jewish violence throughout Russia. Then, Tsar Alexander II was killed by a bomb in St. And Emma became passionate about her Jewish heritage. The New York Jewish community was outraged. Henry Hilton had recently purchased the Grand Union Hotel and instituted the anti-Semitic policy. The successful banker, Joseph Seligman, was refused a room at the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga because he was Jewish. But an event occurred in June, 1877 that made a lasting impression on her. ![]() And has been an integral part of the Statue of Liberty every since.Įmma’s family was never strictly observant of Jewish traditions. Finally, a brass plaque with Emma’s sonnet was installed on the inner wall of the pedestal on May 3, 1903. So she organized a group of Emma’s friends and civic leaders to lobby the government and raise funds to have New Colossus permanently associated with the Statue of Liberty. Georgina wanted to resurrect the sonnet in her friend’s honor. But then, Georgina Schuyler ran across New Colossus in a used bookstore in Manhattan in 1901. And Emma had died of Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1887. In the meantime, the Statue of Liberty had stood in New York’s Harbor since 1886. People who sought liberty could find refuge here.Īfter the Exhibition, New Colossus was forgotten for many years. She described the Statue of Liberty as welcoming the persecuted and downtrodden into America from around the world. Instead, Emma called it the Mother of Exiles. Auguste Bartholdi had intended his work to inspire the ideal of liberty - a beacon shining out around the world. And her sonnet gave the Statue of Liberty new meaning. Once Emma found her inspiration, she wrote New Colossus in record time. They had been persecuted in Eastern Europe and sought safety in America.Įmma’s handwritten manuscript of “New Colossus” (Jewish Women’s Archive) She suggested that Emma write a poem in honor of the Jewish refugees who had recently arrived in New York. She was an artist and didn’t do “work for hire.” But then her friend, Constance Cary Harrison, convinced her to reconsider. When she was first approached, Emma didn’t want to compose a sonnet for the Exhibition. There was little interest in America, however, and the Statue of Liberty sat in a warehouse in Paris waiting for a home. And the Americans were responsible for raising the money to built its pedestal. ![]() It was a gift from the people of France to the people of America - the French raised all the money needed to build the statue itself. The Exhibition was held in Brooklyn over the course of a month and all proceeds helped to pay for the pedestal for the new statue, Liberty Enlightening the World. Later in the evening, Emma’s handwritten manuscript of New Colossus was sold to the highest bidder for $1,500 - more than any other item at the auction (including work by Mark Twain and Walt Whitman). It was the only literary piece to be given such special treatment at the gala. At 8 pm on the evening of December 3, 1883, about 1,500 people stood silent and listened as Emma’s sonnet was recited out loud. New Colossus was a highlight of the opening gala for the Exhibition. “New Colossus” was featured at the fundraiser for Statue of Liberty’s pedestal (Museum of the City of New York) ![]()
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