Emma Lazarus & Statue of Liberty

She is an important forerunner of the Zionist movement. She argued for the creation of a Jewish homeland thirteen years before Theodor Herzl began to use the term Zionism.

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

"Envoyez-moi vos fatigués, vos pauvres,
Envoyez-moi vos cohortes qui aspirent à vivre libres,
Les rebuts de vos rivages surpeuplés
Envoyez-les moi, les déshérités, que la tempête m'apporte,
De ma lumière, j'éclaire la porte d'or !"

"The New Colossus" is a sonnet that American poet Emma Lazarus (1849–1887) wrote in 1883 to raise money for the construction of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. In 1903, the poem was engraved on a bronze plaque and mounted inside the pedestal's lower level.