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{LET MY PEOPLE GO}<br />
B. Karet<br />
Arguably one of the most<br />
recognisable icons in the world,<br />
The Statue of Liberty is regarded<br />
as ‘a potent symbol of liberty,<br />
peace and human rights’. 1<br />
The towering statue of Lady Liberty,<br />
based on Liberatas the Roman<br />
goddess of freedom, sits proudly<br />
on Liberty Island in New York<br />
Harbour. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi<br />
sculpted the copper statue in France<br />
in the mid 1800’s, and Gustav Eiffel<br />
constructed her metal framework.<br />
The torch she thrusts skyward in her<br />
right hand, and the seven-spiked<br />
crown she wears, illuminate the sky<br />
- a means for Liberty ‘to enlighten<br />
the world’. In her left arm, she clasps<br />
a stone tablet with the inscription<br />
‘JULY IV MDCCLXXVI’, the<br />
date of the U.S Declaration of<br />
Independence, enshrining the<br />
concept of freedom, as do the<br />
broken shackles at her feet. In 1903,<br />
a plaque was added to the pedestal<br />
of the statue (funded by America),<br />
bearing the last lines of the sonnet<br />
‘The New Colossus’. This moving<br />
poem was written by the Jewish<br />
activist and poet Emma Lazarus, to<br />
help raise funds for the completion<br />
of the statue. It begins, ‘Give me<br />
your tired, your poor, your huddled<br />
masses yearning to breathe free’. 2<br />
Built in France as a gift for America,<br />
she was hauled across the world in<br />
214 crates and reconstructed on<br />
Bedloe Island (renamed Liberty<br />
Island). Since her dedication in 1886,<br />
to commemorate the centennial of<br />
the end of the Civil War, she has<br />
greeted millions of refugees and<br />
immigrants. For the war-weary<br />
Europeans arriving after World War<br />
II, with exhausted bodies and broken<br />
spirits, she was a beacon of hope<br />
symbolising freedom and a better life.<br />
Edouard de Laboulaye, the president<br />
of the French Anti-slavery Society,<br />
originally proposed the idea of<br />
the statue as a gift from France to<br />
memorialize President Abraham<br />
Lincoln, of whom he was a great<br />
admirer, and to celebrate the<br />
emancipation of African Americans<br />
after the Civil War. 3 He hoped it<br />
would inspire his own countrymen to<br />
fight for democracy and freedom in<br />
their own repressive regime. However,<br />
for many African Americans, she<br />
has not been a symbol of liberation;<br />
rather a stinging reminder of the<br />
rights and freedoms they do not<br />
share with their fellow Americans.<br />
Recent movies such as ‘Hidden<br />
Figures’, the story of the mostly,<br />
unacknowledged African American<br />
female mathematicians and engineers<br />
who worked for the American<br />
space agencies, and ‘Green Book’, a<br />
snapshot of the touring life of Dr<br />
Don Shirley, a highly educated and<br />
gifted pianist of Jamaican heritage,<br />
portray their lack of freedoms. As<br />
recently as the second half of the<br />
20th century, African Americans<br />
endured shameful segregation,<br />
discrimination and humiliation.<br />
Over the centuries, in every<br />
inhabited continent, men and<br />
women have continually<br />
struggled for freedom -<br />
freedom from inequality,<br />
freedom from famine and<br />
freedom from religious<br />
and political persecution.<br />
In the 20th century,<br />
charismatic leaders such<br />
as Nelson Mandela and<br />
Martin Luther King fought to end<br />
apartheid in South Africa and the<br />
United States. Mahatma Gandhi<br />
led a nonviolent campaign for<br />
freedom and independence for<br />
India from British colonial rule.<br />
The fight for freedom continues<br />
in the 21st century. The citizens in<br />
South American countries such as<br />
Venezuela fight for political freedom,<br />
and Nobel Peace Prize winner<br />
Malala Yousafzai quietly campaigns<br />
to free women from bigotry and<br />
exploitation. Wherever she finds a<br />
platform to be heard, she raises her<br />
voice to advocate for the right of<br />
girls in Pakistan, Afghanistan and<br />
India to have an equal opportunity to<br />
receive an education. Most recently,<br />
WORLD JEWRY<br />
25