October 28 1886 – 29 Tishrei 5647
The Statue of Liberty, a gift of the French nation to the people of America, was officially dedicated in New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland. The base of the statue is engraved with the poem “The New Colossus,” by American Jewish poet Emma Lazarus, whose stanzas encapsulate the American Dream:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
The statue was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and built by famed engineer Gustave Eiffel, who was also responsible for Paris’ Eiffel Tower.