Emma Lazarus

Emma Lazarus (July 22, 1849 – November 19, 1887) was an American author of poetry, prose, and translations, as well as an activist for Jewish and Georgist causes. Lazarus is especially remembered for her 1883 sonnet, "The New Colossus", which was inspired by the Statue of Liberty. Lines from the sonnet are inscribed on a bronze plaque which was installed on the Statue's pedestal in 1903. Lazarus was involved in aiding refugees to New York who had fled antisemitic pogroms in eastern Europe, and she saw a way to express her empathy for these refugees in terms of the statue. The last lines of the sonnet were set to music by Irving Berlin as the song "Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor" for the 1949 musical Miss Liberty, which was based on the sculpting of the Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World). The latter part of the sonnet was also set by Lee Hoiby in his song "The Lady of the Harbor" written in 1985 as part of his song cycle "Three Women".

Lazarus was also the author of Poems and Translations (New York, 1867); Admetus, and other Poems (1871); Alide: An Episode of Goethe's Life (Philadelphia, 1874); Poems and Ballads of Heine (New York, 1881); Poems, 2 Vols.; Narrative, Lyric and Dramatic; as well as Jewish Poems and Translations.

Emma Lazarus was born in New York City, July 22, 1849, into a large Jewish family. She was the fourth of seven children of Moses Lazarus, a wealthy merchant and sugar refiner, and Esther Nathan (of a long-established German-Jewish New York family). Her siblings included sisters Josephine, Sarah, Mary, Agnes and Annie, and a brother, Frank.