Anti-Semitism & the Elite

Emma Lazarus, 1849 – 1887

Explicit acts of discrimination were rare during the early years of Emma's life. However, in 1877, the Grand Union Hotel's highly publicized refusal to admit Joseph Seligman, a nouveau riche German Jew, was a sign of change. Anti-semitism had begun to sweep over Europe, and as the rates of Eastern European Jewish immigration climbed, the tolerant American climate continued to shift.

But even Judge Henry Hilton, the Grand Union Hotel's owner, explained he had no objection to the Sephardic elite. Those like Emma Lazarus' family, who had lived in America since before the revolution, were the refined, "true Hebrews." According to Hilton, only the dirty, greedy, German immigrant "Seligman Jews" were unwanted.

Full image | Source

While Emma's devout ancestors and relatives were actively involved with the Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue, her immediate family was "outlawed" among the Lazarus clan because they were no longer religiously observant. Moses Lazarus, Emma's father, worked instead to place his family among the wealthiest Christian society.

Full image | Source

Although Emma's friends were almost all Christian, she was usually referred to and seen as a "Jewess." As Emma knew, prejudice often lurked beneath the polite surface of wealthy society. Despite her father's efforts and her elite Sephardic background, her outsider status was never entirely erased. As she wrote in one letter, "I am perfectly conscious that this contempt and hatred underlies the general tone of the community towards us..."

Notes:

On the Sephardic community's privilege and elevated position see Stephen Birmingham, "Our Crowd”: The Great Jewish Families of New York (New York: Harper and Row, 1967) 29, 127.
On the shifting American attitude towards Jews see Francine Klagsbrun, forward, Emma Lazarus in Her World: Life and Letters by Bette Ross Young (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1995) xi .
On the Grand Union Hotel and Hilton, see "Hotel Discrimination," New York Times (June 20, 1877): 1.
For Lazarus' religious background, as well as her outsider status see Ellen Emerson, "My dear Edith," 6 September 1876, The Letters of Ellen Tucker Emerson, vol. 2, ed. Edith E.W. Gregg (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1982) 225. Also see Young, 44-5.
For Lazarus' quote on the community's contempt see her letter in Philip Cowen, "A Budget of Letters," American Hebrew 33 (Dec. 9, 1887): 8.

Discuss

History Makers articles were researched in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Please help us keep them current.

Do you have updates for this article? Links to newly-available online resources of interest? Are there other areas for this article that you feel should be mentioned, or mentioned in more detail? Write them here, and they will become part of the page, to be shared with other readers.

Post new comment

How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "History Makers - Emma Lazarus - Anti-Semitism & the Elite." <http://jwa.org/historymakers/lazarus/antisemitism-elite> (September 2, 2010).