The 94th anniversary of the birth of Emma Lazarus, whose poem, “The New Colossus,” is inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty, will be marked on Bedloe’s Island in New York harbor, where the Statue is located, on Thursday afternoon, it was announced here today.
Speakers at the ceremonies, which have been arranged by the American Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born, will include George A. Palmer, of the Department of the Interior, who will preside. Congressman Vito Marcantonio of New York and Councilman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
Emma Lazarus was born in New York City on July 22, 1849, of Spanish-Jewish immigrant parents. She died in 1887. She wrote her world-famous poem, “The New Colossus,” in 1883 as her contribution to the public campaign to raise funds for the purchase of the pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty was to stand.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
