TELL April-May 2019

{LET MY PEOPLE GO}
B. Karet
Arguably one of the most
recognisable icons in the world,
The Statue of Liberty is regarded
as ‘a potent symbol of liberty,
peace and human rights’. 1
The towering statue of Lady Liberty,
based on Liberatas the Roman
goddess of freedom, sits proudly
on Liberty Island in New York
Harbour. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi
sculpted the copper statue in France
in the mid 1800’s, and Gustav Eiffel
constructed her metal framework.
The torch she thrusts skyward in her
right hand, and the seven-spiked
crown she wears, illuminate the sky
- a means for Liberty ‘to enlighten
the world’. In her left arm, she clasps
a stone tablet with the inscription
‘JULY IV MDCCLXXVI’, the
date of the U.S Declaration of
Independence, enshrining the
concept of freedom, as do the
broken shackles at her feet. In 1903,
a plaque was added to the pedestal
of the statue (funded by America),
bearing the last lines of the sonnet
‘The New Colossus’. This moving
poem was written by the Jewish
activist and poet Emma Lazarus, to
help raise funds for the completion
of the statue. It begins, ‘Give me
your tired, your poor, your huddled
masses yearning to breathe free’. 2
Built in France as a gift for America,
she was hauled across the world in
214 crates and reconstructed on
Bedloe Island (renamed Liberty
Island). Since her dedication in 1886,
to commemorate the centennial of
the end of the Civil War, she has
greeted millions of refugees and
immigrants. For the war-weary
Europeans arriving after World War
II, with exhausted bodies and broken
spirits, she was a beacon of hope
symbolising freedom and a better life.
Edouard de Laboulaye, the president
of the French Anti-slavery Society,
originally proposed the idea of
the statue as a gift from France to
memorialize President Abraham
Lincoln, of whom he was a great
admirer, and to celebrate the
emancipation of African Americans
after the Civil War. 3 He hoped it
would inspire his own countrymen to
fight for democracy and freedom in
their own repressive regime. However,
for many African Americans, she
has not been a symbol of liberation;
rather a stinging reminder of the
rights and freedoms they do not
share with their fellow Americans.
Recent movies such as ‘Hidden
Figures’, the story of the mostly,
unacknowledged African American
female mathematicians and engineers
who worked for the American
space agencies, and ‘Green Book’, a
snapshot of the touring life of Dr
Don Shirley, a highly educated and
gifted pianist of Jamaican heritage,
portray their lack of freedoms. As
recently as the second half of the
20th century, African Americans
endured shameful segregation,
discrimination and humiliation.
Over the centuries, in every
inhabited continent, men and
women have continually
struggled for freedom -
freedom from inequality,
freedom from famine and
freedom from religious
and political persecution.
In the 20th century,
charismatic leaders such
as Nelson Mandela and
Martin Luther King fought to end
apartheid in South Africa and the
United States. Mahatma Gandhi
led a nonviolent campaign for
freedom and independence for
India from British colonial rule.
The fight for freedom continues
in the 21st century. The citizens in
South American countries such as
Venezuela fight for political freedom,
and Nobel Peace Prize winner
Malala Yousafzai quietly campaigns
to free women from bigotry and
exploitation. Wherever she finds a
platform to be heard, she raises her
voice to advocate for the right of
girls in Pakistan, Afghanistan and
India to have an equal opportunity to
receive an education. Most recently,
WORLD JEWRY
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