Thus, upon discovering that the Statue of Liberty National Monument web site made no mention of the poem engraved at the foot of the statue, I allowed myself the tangent of seeking out an e-mail address on the site, and sending off a letter.
From: "Jay Hurvitz" <jhurvitz@ort.org.il>Experience has taught me not to expect prompt responses to queries such as this. It was thus quite a surprise to discover, while downloading mail late at night before shutting down and going to sleep, that a response had arrived, and that not only was it a prompt reply, but a well reasoned and quite convincing one at that.
To: <STLI_Superintendent@nps.gov>
Subject: The Statue of Liberty National Monument web siteShalom!
This letter is being directed to you since yours was the only e-mail address that I was able to find on the web site devoted to the Statue of Liberty: http://www.nps.gov/stli/.
The web site is quite extensive and contains much interesting information - both to the potential visitor and to the virtual visitor who wants to learn about the Statue of Liberty with the aid of the site. Thus it was strange, even inexplicable, that nowhere on the site (from my rather extensive exploration of the site, which included conducting a couple of searches) is any mention made of the poem engraved on the pedestal of the statue, "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus. This poem is a central part of the statue, and many source materials that exist on the statue emphasize that it expresses the American conception of liberty. A site devoted to the Statue of Liberty (on a U.S. Government server, no less) that devotes numerous paragraphs to the history of the statue, yet makes no mention of this poem, not only fails in its attempt to impart significant information - it makes one pause to wonder whether this is an oversight or is a purposeful omission.
I look forward to your response on this issue.
Jay Hurvitz
From: George_Tselos@nps.gov (George Tselos)
Subject: Your inquiry about the Emma Lazarus poem
To: jhurvitz@macam.ac.ilJay Hurvitz
Kibbutz HatzorDear Mr. Hurvitz:
Your recent communication to the Superintendent has been referred to me for response. Thank you for your generally appreciative evaluation of the web site for the Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island Immigration Museum. Regarding the poem "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus, a case can certainly be made that it should be mentioned somewhere in the web site. Material on the poem and its author, including the actual plaque, have been and remain incorporated in the historical exhibit on the Statue of Liberty which is displayed in a large gallery in the base of the Statue. As you are certainly aware, the Statue and its associated exhibits are visited by enormous numbers of people from around the world each year.
It must be noted, however, that the close association of the Statue with the Lazarus poem is very much of a twentieth century phenomenon. The original poem was only one of many written by many people during the United States fund raising campaign for the construction of the pedestal. The "official" poem read at the dedication ceremony was written by John Greenleaf Whittier, though the Lazarus poem was printed in the back of a booklet written about the Statue during this period. The poem then faded into obscurity until after the turn of the century, when a wealthy friend of Emma Lazarus paid to have the poem inscribed on a metal plaque and placed outside the Statue.
Even then, the poem did not become very well known until the decade of the 1930s and afterwards when the crisis of World War Two and its associated refugees led to its being more widely read. Thus it was not until the mid-part of the twentieth century that the "Mother of Exiles" theme became a recognized part of the symbolism of the Statue.
In recent years, there has been increasing historical emphasis on the initiative, ingenuity and determination of the immigrants embarking for the United States as well as on their distinctive ethnic and religious identities. From this perspective, the references in the Lazarus poem to the Statue calling to the Old World to send forth its "huddled masses" and the "wretched refuse of your teeming shore" sound paternalistic and stereotypical, despite the poet's otherwise moving sentiments. How many of the immigrants' decendents view their ancestors as "wretched refuse?" My own father came to this country from Greece in 1915 as a teenager from a Greek village and hardly fits the above imagery.
Nevertheless, the connection between the Statue and the poem remains so widely known that the staff here will certainly consider inclusion of the poem or references to it in future "editions" of the web site.
Sincerely,
George D. Tselos
Supervisory Archivist
Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island Immigration Museum