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“Give me your tired, your poor...”
The Southern ?
Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry
'Since 1925' ‘i
U.S. leaders denounce
stamp on converts’ I Ds
NEW YORK (JTA)—Leaders
of Reform and Conservative Juda
ism in the United States spoke out
strongly last week to denounce the
practice by the Orthodox-controlled
Ministry of Interior in Israel of
printing the word "converted” next
to the designation “Jewish” on the
identity cards of Jewish converts in
Israel.
Rabbi Alexander Schindler,
president of the Union of Ameri
can Hebrew Congregations, the
congregational organization of
Reform Jews, charged that, “Now
the Orthodox establishment in Is
rael wants to stamp the equivalent
of the yellow star on the identity
cards of immigrants to Israel who
have been converted to Judaism.”
Goren blasts convert designation
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The former Ashkenazic chief rabbi of
Israel, Shlomo Goren, has elaborated on his sharp criticism of the
Interior Ministry’s new regulation that requires the word “converted”
to be stamped next to the designation “Jewish" on the identity cards of
converts to Judaism in Israel.
Goren said on a radio interview that the ruling was totally contrary
to halacha, Jewish religious law. According to halacha, one is abso
lutely forbidden from putting any stigma on a convert once the conver
sion procedures are completed. “He should not be reminded that he is a
convert,” Goren declared.
The Orthodox rabbi added that the new regulation did injustice to
most converts since they observe Judaism more strictly than secular
Jews. He stressed that converts are equal to other Jews and even have
privileges other Jews do not have. “It is a mitzva to love the convert,”
Goren declared.
A statement adopted by the ex
ecutive council of the Rabbinical
Assembly, the association of Con
servative rabbis, urged Prime Min-
See IDs, page 16.
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‘A mighty woman with a torch’
by Rabbi Bernard S. Raskas
Worldwide News Service
Four days of celebration are
under war throughout the United
States to commemorate the 100th
anniversary of the dedication of
the Statue of Liberty, l^ed by Lee
lococa, a refurbished Statue of
Liberty, gracing New York's har
bor. will pay tribute to the millions
of immigrants that passed by this
symbol of freedom to enter the
United States. However, not all are
aware that the words written on
the base of "the lady with the
lamp" were written by a Jewish
woman poet, Emma Lazarus. Her
story is a fascinating one.
Emma Lazarus was born on
July 22, 1X49, in New York City,
into a Jewish family that traced its
ancestry back to Portugal. The
Lazarus family considered them
selves “Jewish nobility,” superior
to the Jews of eastern Europe.
Although the Sabbath and the Jew
ish holy days were observed, the
Lazaruses viewed themselves as
thoroughly American and were
more interested in the Civil War
and American politics than perse
cuted Jews.
Emma Lazarus was educated at
home by private tutors, as was typ
ical of affluent families during that
era. She was a sensitive spirit and
tended to be introverted. She
showed interest in music, the Ger
man poems of Heine and English
literature. Her earliest poems dealt
with sorrowfulness and longing and
were dedicated to a young man
whose name we do not know.
In 1X67 her first book entitled
“Poems and Translations” was
published. She met the foremost
poet of that time, Ralph Waldo
Emerson, at a gathering and he
asked her for a copy of the book.
Following that, they became friends
and he served as her advisor. Her
next work “Admetus,” a mytho
logical story, was dedicated to him.
Emerson’s correspondence with
Emma Lazarus is treasured in the
manuscript room of the library of
Columbia University.
The esteemed Berlin rabbi, Gus
tav Gottheil, was called to the pres
tigious pulpit of Temple Emanu-
El, on Fifth Avenue in New York,
in 1X73. As he began his rabbinic
career there, he decided to create a
new prayer book which would draw
upon the richness of the English
language. He read Emma Lazarus’
poem entitled “In the Jewish Syn
agogue at Newport.” Soon he in
vited her to join him in his beloved
project. She was evasive and seemed
to balk at becoming a “Jewish
writer.”
But, in the beginning of the
18X0s, a wave of persecutions oc
curred in Russia that traumatized
Emma Lazarus and turned her into
a “Jewish writer.” As a member of
Emma Lazarus
the Jewish Welfare Committee, she
went to Ward’s Island to welcome
persecuted Jews. There she saw
Jews of all occupations represented:
the peddler who spoke Yiddish, the
big merchant, the engineer, the
tavern keeper, the university pro
fessor, the doctor, the lawyer—all
Jews. The only possessions they
had were wrapped in a small bundle.
When she returned home, she
could not sleep. She was haunted
by people who had nothing mate
rial left except what they could
gather in a scarf or a kerchief. She
responded with a poem, “Songs of
a Semite,” which was destined to
stir thousands. What she saw on
Ward’s Island, the pitiful mass of
humanity brought low, the inno
cent misery of Jewish refugees,
made a new person and poet out of
her.
Emma Lazarus’ voice rose like a
trumpet and her accusations were
powerful and direct:
When the long roll of Christian
guilt
Against his sires and kin is
known.
The flood of tears, the life-blood
spilt,
The agony of ages shown,
What oceans can the stain
remove,
From Christian law and Chris
tian love?
But she did not merely accuse,
she inspired her fellow Jews to
stand up for their brothers and sis
ters. She appealed to the memories
of Jewish heroics and Jewish cour
age. Her moving words were best
expressed in a work entitled “The
Banner of the Jew.” Let her words
speak for her:
Wake, Israel, wake! Recall today
The glorious Maccabean rage.
Say not the mystic flame is spent!
Your ancient strength remains
unbent.
Let but an Ezra rise anew,
To lift the Banner of the Jew!
Dipping into Jewish history, her
poems became polemical and force
ful. Emma Lazarus did not merely
play the intellectual but agonized
and attended mass meetings on
behalf of persecuted Russian Jews.
To her the Jewish question became
the issue of humanity itself.
When Jews were defamed in an
article in the popular magazine
Century, Emma Lazarus answered
it point by point with fire and
brimstone. She counterthrusted
the old nonsense that there were
“two kinds of Jews”—good and
bad. For her all Jews were one. She
thoroughly demolished the anti-
Semitism of the original article.
Emma Lazarus now emerged
from the shy young lady and learned
to write with speed, vigor and assur
ance. She grew closer to her Jew
ish roots, even espousing an early
form of Zionism. She wrote a play
about the persecution of Jews in
medieval Germany.
But, in May of 1883 at age 34,
her strength began to fail. She tried
a trip to Europe, but it soon became
clear that her days were limited by
cancer. When Emma returned to
New York, she found a strange
request.
She received an appeal from a
committee that was planning to set
up—on Bedloe Island in New York
harbor—a colossal statue, “Liberty
Enlightening the World.” Some
decades earlier two Frenchmen had
conceived the idea of this statue,
Laboulaye, the statesman, and
Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor.
The idea behind this planned gift
See Lazarus, page 16.
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