[²] Ibid., No. 5.... September ... p. 16.
Judah Touro Emma Lazarus
Mordecai Manuel Noah Rabbi Dr. Morris Jacob Raphall
CHAPTER XLIII.
THE MOVEMENT IN AMERICA
Zionism echoed in America—Emma Lazarus—A call—Emma Lazarus and George Eliot—Mrs. Rose Sonnenshein—The Opposition—A Tour to Palestine—The Colonies.
These ideas were echoed in a sublime form in English-speaking American Jewry by the poetess Emma Lazarus (1849–1887), one of the most eloquent champions of the Jewish national idea in the English language.
The story of Emma Lazarus’ life is the story of a soul ever striving and pressing ahead towards truth and the light. Her works clearly reflect the progress of her ideas. She was a born songstress, yet she did not sing like the nightingale for the joy of being alive. There was a shadow of sadness resting on her entire being, something born with her as part of her disposition and temperament, the stamp and heritage of a suffering race. Hebraism lay dormant in this Jewish poetess. She was much influenced by Heinrich Heine (1797–1856). Charmed by the beauty of his poetry, the whimsical play of his imagination and the heart’s muffled outburst audible through it all, she was nevertheless unaware of the actual bond that united them: the relationship in the blood, the unquenchable flame of the tragic Jewish passion of eighteen hundred years, which was smouldering in her own heart, and was soon to break forth and change the entire tendency of her thoughts and feelings.