November 19 1887 – 3 Kislev 5648
New York
Emma Lazarus passed away at age thirty-eight. She is best known for her poem “The New Colossus,” written in 1883 to raise funds for a pedestal from which the Statue of Liberty would face out across the Atlantic to Europe. Lazarus was active in welfare relief for Russian Jewish immigrants, so there was real conviction behind the words, “Give me your tired, your poor / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” In 1903, inside the entrance to the statue, Lazarus’ friend Georgina Schuyler installed a bronze memorial tablet quoting the poem.