David Herman
The Immigrant Voices, Part 1: Emma Lazarus
Summary
This is the first in a series of lectures focusing on the nearly 150 years of Jewish American literature. In this lecture, David Herman will take a look at the famous Jewish poet, Emma Lazarus, who is most famous for ‘The New Colossus’ (1883) which was later placed on the Statue of Liberty.
David Herman
David Herman is a freelance writer based in London. Over the past 20 years he has written almost a thousand articles, essays, and reviews on Jewish history and literature for publications including the Jewish Chronicle, the Jewish Quarterly, Jewish Renaissance, the Guardian, the New Statesman, and Prospect. He has taught courses on Jewish culture for the London Jewish Cultural Centre and JW3. He is a regular contributor to Jewish Book Week, the Association of Jewish Refugees, and the Insiders/Outsiders Festival on the contribution of Jewish refugees to British culture.
Not as far as I know, David and indeed doesn’t really have anything like the reputation in this country, in Britain, that she has in America. She’s a quintessentially American writer. It’s no coincidence that selected poems are published by the Library of America. It’s no coincidence that she’s regarded by many critics as the first great Jewish-American writer. So I wouldn’t say that she really has been embraced by European Jewish communities.