Emma Lazarus MOBI º Part of the Jewish Encounter seriesEmma Lazarus s most famous poem gave a voice to the Statue of Liberty, but her remarkable life has remained a mystery until now She was a woman so far ahead of her time that we are still scrambling to catch up with her a feminist, a Zionist, and an internationally famous Jewish American writer before thse categories even existedDrawing. Part of the Jewish Encounter seriesEmma Lazarus s most famous poem gave a voice to the Statue of Liberty, but her remarkable life has remained a mystery until now She was a woman so far ahead of her time that we are still scrambling to catch up with her a feminist, a Zionist, and an internationally famous Jewish American writer before thse categories even existedDrawing upon a cache of personal letters undiscovered until the , Esther Schor brings this vital woman to life in all her complexity Born into a wealthy Sephardic family in , Lazarus published her first volume of verse at seventeen and gained entr e into New York s elite literary circles Although she once referred to her family as outlaw Jews, she felt a deep attachment to Jewish history and peoplehood Her compassion for the downtrodden Jews of Eastern Europe refugees whose lives had little in common with her own helped redefine the meaning of America itself In this groundbreaking biography, Schor argues persuasively for Lazarus s place in history as a poet, an activist, and a prophet of the world we all inhabit today a world that she helped to invent