EMMA LAZARUS (1849-1887): Writing As a Jewish Woman in America

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=110 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="039f0f21egerdp.jpg"> <div> <B>EMMA LAZARUS (1849-1887): Writing As a Jewish Woman in America</B></div> <bR> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="038f2f02egerdp.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="lecture_teaching.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lecture/Teaching Topics for Adults"><U><B>Lecture/Teaching Topics for Adults</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Teenager Education Topics "><U><B>Teenager Education Topics</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="IMMIGRATION AND ACCULTURATION"><U><B>Immigration and Acculturation</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="COMING HERE: The Poetry of JewishAmerica"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f099000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Coming Here</B></U></A><B> </B></div> <div> <A HREF="id38.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="JEWS AND THE CITIES: Out of the Ghetto,"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f099000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Jews and the Cities</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id37.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="BETWEEN GENERATIONS: New Families in New"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f099000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Between Generations</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id41.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="SYNAGOGUE, CHURCH, AND UNIVERSITY: Assi"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f099000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Synagogue, Church and University</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id87.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="JEWS, WAR, AND THE MILITARY"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f099000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Jews, War, and the Military</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="JEWISHAMERICAN AND ANGLOJEWISH POETRY IN"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f099000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Jewish-American and Anglo-Jewish Poetry in Context</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id99.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="IMMIGRATION: Jewish Womens Poetry"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f099000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Jewish Women's Poetry</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id15.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact JEWISH VOICES"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f099000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Contact JEWISH VOICES</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Jewish Voices 200 Years of Jewish Poetry"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f099000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Home</B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=370 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="03bf0f03.jpg"> <div> <I><B>Emma Lazarus (1849-1887 ): Writing as a Jewish Woman in America</B></I></div> <bR> <div>      We know the lines Lazarus wrote about the ”huddled masses yearning to breathe  free”—but not that Lazarus aimed to be a significant Jewish-American female poet.  Her Jewish writings, spanning her entire career, speak to chief issues in Jewish-American cultural life. In three volumes of poetry, she shaped her voice against Christian conver-sionist designs and the  Protestant New England literary scene.</div> <div>      Lazarus meshed her understanding of Western literary practices with her knowledge of Jewish liturgical traditions.  She also explored her historical conception of Judaism in relation to other major civilizations.  </div> <div>      Her fierce responses to the Russian pogroms of the 1880s and her assumption of prophetic roles mark her as a fine, inventive poet. Her increasingly strident tones and her complex cultural perceptions combine with sharp auditory imagination and shrewd psychological strategies.  Lazarus remains the boldest of Jewish anti-Christian satirists.</div> <div>      Writings spanning her entire career, including some never published in book form.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>