A Hebrew-American poet; born in New York city, July 22, 1849, died there Nov. 19, 1887. She labored diligently in behalf of her race and devoted her pen largely to Hebrew subjects, publishing a much-discussed article in The Century on “Russian Christianity versus Modern Judaism.” Her first volume was composed of “Poems and Translations” (1866), written between the ages of fourteen and seventeen. This was followed by “Admetus” (1871); “Alide: an Episode of Goethe’s Life” (1874); “Songs of a Semite” (1882), all of which are marked by naturalness of sentiment, vivid effect, and artistic reserve of expression.

Personal

  During the last fifteen years it has been my good fortune to meet her often, and to have opportunities of conversation with her upon subjects of every kind, especially those relating to literature, philosophy and universal religion. These conversations were always deeply interesting to me, and often exceedingly instructive. Her knowledge was extensive, her appreciation unhackneyed and sympathetic, her wit and humor delightful, her taste catholic, and her judgment substantial and impressive. Narrowness and bigotry were unknown to her nature, and her friendships were most valuable to those on whom she conferred them. To the courage and logic of a man she added the delicate and varying subtlety of a womanly intelligence. To have possessed in any degree the friendship of such a person is a consolation in the struggles and disappointments of life, and the sense of loss which comes from her death is amply repaid by the consciousness that she has lived.

  I think no one could see her casually without being strongly impressed by her personality. Immediately I knew that here was a woman of pure mind, sincere heart, capacity for friendship and of unselfish enthusiasm—if one were worthy of her friendship he might trust her to the end. Interesting as was the fine play of her intellectual faculties in society, I am not sure but her greater charm was in the sincerity and goodness which everyone felt in her. Her literary work bore the stamp of her absolutely unaffected character. It was all genuine, she never posed. But besides all this her poems wore the indefinable note of genius, the quality which one instantly recognized, which makes the world-wide difference between verse and poetry.

  While thoroughly feminine, and a mistress of the social art and charm, she was—though without the slightest trace of pedantry—the natural companion of scholars and thinkers. Her emotional nature kept pace with her intellect; as she grew in learning and mental power, she became still more earnest, devoted, impassioned…. That she was aglow with the Jewish spirit, proud of her race’s history and characteristics, and consecrated to its freedom from oppression throughout the world,—all this was finely manifest; yet her intellectual outlook was so broad that I took her to be a modern Theist in religion, and one who would not stipulate for absolute maintenance of the barriers with which the Mosaic law isolated the Jewish race, in certain respects, from the rest of mankind. Taking into account, however, the forces of birth and training, I could understand how our Miriam of to-day, filled with the passion of her cause, should return to the Pentateuchal faith—to the Mosaic ritual in its hereditary and most uncompromising form. Nor would any lover of the heroic in life or literature, if such had been her course, desire to have it otherwise.

  The personality of Emma Lazarus is one that has done much to ennoble womanhood…. The home in which Emma Lazarus grew up was remarkable for its atmosphere of culture and refinement. All the aids to social interchange, all the accomplishments which can give a charm to daily life, softening little anxieties and turning the thoughts to constant aspiration, were present there in a very marked degree. One felt the influence of the fine picture, the choice book, the elegant instrument, not as an outside addition to the furniture, but as an inner factor in determining the elevation of taste, the trend of thought, the entrance of the spirit into pure harmony. Her life as a woman was comparatively retired. Her quiet, unpretentious manner gave strangers very little indication of the mind contained within that unobtrusive figure. She had many devoted friends, was passionately fond of Nature, and almost equally allured by art. Mr. Emerson corresponded with her for a number of years; and Miss Lazarus probably drew from this friendship as much benefit in the womanly part of her nature as she derived stimulus from the mental contact with the distinguished author. She was fond of the theatre, and particularly appreciated the splendid impersonations of Salvini. She was much sought after in cultured society in New York.

General

  Her songs of the Divine unity, repeated on the lips of her own people in all zones and continents, have been heard round the world. With no lack of rhythmic sweetness, she has often the rugged strength and verbal audacity of Browning. Since Miriam sang of deliverance and triumph by the Red Sea, the Semitic race has had no braver singer.

  Nowhere among our writers was there a talent more genuine and substantial, a devotion to art for its own sake and for the sake of high principles, more earnest and singleminded. From the very beginning of her literary life, her poetic faculty showed a constant and regular growth in strength and depth; her last writings were the richest and most attractive fruits of her genius.

  To me Emma Lazarus seemed one of the most notable of women. Her genius combined in a rare way a capacity for largeness of view with intensity of illumination and emotion. She was capable of high enthusiasm, without any alloy of religious bigotry; and it was the good fortune of her mental constitution that she was also free from moral intolerance to a degree not often found in one so wholly earnest.

  It will not be questioned that Emma Lazarus represented the most intellectual type of Jewish womanhood in this country. Her latter years were marked by a lofty, noble, religious spirit, which was full of love for her race, and which breathed the life of a Judaism higher and more elevating than that which passes current with many as Judaism. Her later writings such as the “Epistle to the Hebrews,” published in The American Hebrew, certainly had a marked effect upon many young men and women in our community, who thereby became inspired in working in the cause of their unfortunate brethren, and strongly encouraged others in the same direction. This effort powerfully exhibited the intense Jewish feeling of this noble woman in Israel, and the keen desire which animated her to arouse the apathy existing among many of our coreligionists in communal work. Emma Lazarus, in a few of her Jewish writings, was a preacher to the intellectual Jewish young men and women, whose eloquence and sentiments touched the hearts of her flock much more powerfully and effectively than scores of sermons delivered to listless audiences in chilly temples and synagogues.

  How shall her memory best be honored by the Jewish world and the literary world to each of which she belonged? The Jewish world may do her honor by active encouragement of those purposes which were dear to her—the technical education of immigrants, the establishment and assistance of agricultural colonies, and such other methods as are acknowledged to be the remedy of the disagreeable sociological phase of the Jewish question. And if the literary world in fact honors her memory and would keep it green, there can certainly be no better way than by continuing the work she undertook. Literature makes public sentiment and the makers of literature can pay no higher tribute to Emma Lazarus than if each in his way, following the path trodden by her and by George Eliot, will add his quota to make anti-Semitism hateful and despised among men.

  How Jewish patriotism was a passion that thrilled her can be judged by her writings. No aimless or vague emotion was it with her. To her, Jewish patriotism meant a response to the highest and noblest calls that can wake the Jewish heart, and wake it to love, not the Jew, but the world…. Her epistles to the Hebrews will remain a monument to her deep Jewish sentiment, and her suggestions therein prove her far-reaching wisdom; for she accentuated technical education as a feature in the American Jewish system, and proposed to carry American Jewish energy to attack the evil at the root by working among the East European Jews who are to-day counted by millions. For them she suggested “internal reform based on higher education,” “emigration to more enlightened and progressive countries,” and “repatriation and auto-emancipation in Palestine.”

  Has the distinction of being the foremost latter-day poet of Israel. Her poetry has a singular loftiness and, if the seeming paradox be permitted, a passionate serenity, which distinguish it from the great bulk of contemporary minor verse. It is by such lyrics as “The Banner of the Jew” that she will no doubt be longest remembered, but her poetic dramas, particularly “The Dance to Death,” are remarkable in the best sense. Perhaps to the majority of readers she appeals most by her renderings from the mediæval Hebrew poets of Spain,… by those from Petrarch and Dante, and from Heine and A. de Musset. For translation she had a faculty scarce short of genius. Miss Lazarus is not always at her ease in the sonnet, but her “Success,” “Venus of the Louvre,” and “Love’s Protagonist,” are fine examples of this form.

  Was a woman of the Hebrew faith, of great sweetness and depth of character, and of lofty imaginative genius. She made it her theme and mission to appeal through the medium of verse to the highest instincts of her race, to recall to them their sublime history, and to foreshadow a glorious future. The bulk of her writings was not great; but before she died she was recognized as a poet of the first rank.

  Our women poets of the century usually have written from the heart; none more so than Emma Lazarus, whose early verse had been that of an art-pupil, and who died young—but not before she seized the harp of Judah and made it give out strains that all too briefly renewed the ancient fervor and inspiration.