Views of Karl Marx on Jews: Difference between revisions
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Harrystein (talk | contribs) (Created page with "The '''views of Karl Marx on Jews''' are by far the most popular topic of discussion among anti-Marxists and anti-communists. Implications that Karl Marx, whose Jewish father converted to Christianity, was an antisemite or a self-hating Jew are ubiquitous in both right-wing and liberal attacks on Marxism,<ref name="jewish press">{{cite web | last=Singer | first=Saul Jay | title=Karl Marx: A Self-Hating Jew | website=JewishPress.com | date=...") |
Harrystein (talk | contribs) (added commented-out content for later revision. copied mainly from this deprecated edit of "On the Jewish Question".) |
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The '''views of Karl Marx on Jews''' are by far the most popular topic of discussion among anti-[[Marxists]] and [[anti-communist]]s. Implications that [[Karl Marx]], whose [[Jewish]] father converted to [[Christianity]], was an [[antisemite]] or a self-hating Jew are ubiquitous in both [[right-wing]] and [[liberal]] attacks on Marxism,<ref name="jewish press">{{cite web | last=Singer | first=Saul Jay | title=Karl Marx: A Self-Hating Jew | website=JewishPress.com | date=8 May 2019 | url=https://www.jewishpress.com/sections/features/features-on-jewish-world/karl-marx-a-self-hating-jew/2019/05/08/ | access-date=14 Oct 2023}}</ref><ref name="commentary">{{cite web | last=Johnson | first=Paul | title=Marxism vs. the Jews | website=Commentary Magazine | date=1 Apr 1984 | url=https://www.commentary.org/articles/paul-johnson-3/marxism-vs-the-jews/ | access-date=14 Oct 2023}}</ref> either in the form of ''ad hominem'' or by directly connecting antisemitism with his critique of [[capitalism]].{{efn|"Marxism, arguably, is little more than a conspiracy theory in which the ruling classes – i.e., “the Jews” – control and manipulate the economy to enrich themselves at the expense of poor workers."<ref name="jewish press" /><br>"It was Marx’s sinister achievement to marry the economic anti-Semitism of the French socialists to the philosophical anti-Semitism of the German idealists and so to construct a new kind of anti-Semitic conspiracy theory which was to be an intellectual rehearsal for his general theory of capital."<ref name="commentary" />}} Many Marxists and leftists argue that he held views typical of the antisemitism of the 19th century, while others claim that his views have been misrepresented.<ref name="abram leon">{{cite web | title=The Jewish Question (1. Scientific study of Jewish history) | last=Leon|first=Abram| website=Marxists Internet Archive | date=29 Jun 2020 | url=https://www.marxists.org/subject/jewish/leon/ch1.htm | ref={{sfnref | Marxists Internet Archive | 2020}} | access-date=14 Oct 2023}}</ref> Some leftists argue that Marx's views, especially his private letters with his lifelong friend [[Friedrich Engels]], constitute [[ironic racism]].{{cn}} | The '''views of Karl Marx on Jews''' are by far the most popular topic of discussion among anti-[[Marxists]] and [[anti-communist]]s. Implications that [[Karl Marx]], whose [[Jewish]] father converted to [[Christianity]], was an [[antisemite]] or a self-hating Jew are ubiquitous in both [[right-wing]] and [[liberal]] attacks on Marxism,<ref name="jewish press">{{cite web | last=Singer | first=Saul Jay | title=Karl Marx: A Self-Hating Jew | website=JewishPress.com | date=8 May 2019 | url=https://www.jewishpress.com/sections/features/features-on-jewish-world/karl-marx-a-self-hating-jew/2019/05/08/ | access-date=14 Oct 2023}}</ref><ref name="commentary">{{cite web | last=Johnson | first=Paul | title=Marxism vs. the Jews | website=Commentary Magazine | date=1 Apr 1984 | url=https://www.commentary.org/articles/paul-johnson-3/marxism-vs-the-jews/ | access-date=14 Oct 2023}}</ref> either in the form of ''ad hominem'' or by directly connecting antisemitism with his critique of [[capitalism]].{{efn|"Marxism, arguably, is little more than a conspiracy theory in which the ruling classes – i.e., “the Jews” – control and manipulate the economy to enrich themselves at the expense of poor workers."<ref name="jewish press" /><br>"It was Marx’s sinister achievement to marry the economic anti-Semitism of the French socialists to the philosophical anti-Semitism of the German idealists and so to construct a new kind of anti-Semitic conspiracy theory which was to be an intellectual rehearsal for his general theory of capital."<ref name="commentary" />}} Many Marxists and leftists argue that he held views typical of the antisemitism of the 19th century, while others claim that his views have been misrepresented.<ref name="abram leon">{{cite web | title=The Jewish Question (1. Scientific study of Jewish history) | last=Leon|first=Abram| website=Marxists Internet Archive | date=29 Jun 2020 | url=https://www.marxists.org/subject/jewish/leon/ch1.htm | ref={{sfnref | Marxists Internet Archive | 2020}} | access-date=14 Oct 2023}}</ref><ref name="rose">{{cite web | last=Rose | first=John | title= Karl Marx, Abram Leon, and the Jewish Question: A reappraisal| website=Marxists Internet Archive | date=2008 | url=https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/rose-j/2008/xx/marx-leon.html#f77 | access-date=14 Oct 2023}}</ref><ref name="burgis">{{cite web | last=Burgis | first=Ben | title=No, Karl Marx Wasn’t a Hideous Racist | website=Jacobin | date=4 May 2022 | url=https://jacobin.com/2022/05/marx-race-antisemitism-history-andrew-sullivan-enlightenment | access-date=14 Oct 2023}}</ref> Some leftists argue that Marx's views, especially his private letters with his lifelong friend [[Friedrich Engels]], constitute [[ironic racism]].{{cn}} | ||
==Writings== | ==Writings== | ||
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===''Capital''=== | ===''Capital''=== | ||
<!--someone do a full text search or something for "Jew" and give a balanced idea. Maybe i'll do it. -Harry --> | <!--someone do a full text search or something for "Jew" and give a balanced idea. Maybe i'll do it. -Harry --> | ||
===Private correspondence=== | |||
<!--{{hatnote|The following quotations are now presented without comment for later analysis.}} | |||
While on holiday in Ramsgate, in old age, he once complained of<ref>https://books.google.com/books?id=AbaKJ6jlHCwC&pg=PT148&lpg=PT148&dq=%22many+Jews+and+fleas%22&source=bl&ots=QVKBdlm5Ae&sig=ACfU3U0sfzrfb6XrH711jBHHuKw30MR9cA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi0r4GbjN3rAhVqmHIEHYUEAWYQ6AEwCXoECAEQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22many%20Jews%20and%20fleas%22&f=false</ref> (This is a good starting point for quotes and further sources of discussion and attacks.) | |||
{{quote|Many Jews and fleas}} | |||
== | Marx argued in Das Kapital that the Jews exiled from Egypt represented an exile of<ref>https://www.jewishpress.com/sections/features/features-on-jewish-world/karl-marx-a-self-hating-jew/2019/05/08/</ref>{{bsn}} | ||
{{quote|Leper people}} | |||
And also wrote<ref>https://www.jewishpress.com/sections/features/features-on-jewish-world/karl-marx-a-self-hating-jew/2019/05/08/</ref>{{bsn}} | |||
{{quote|the capitalist knows that all merchandise, no matter how ruinous it may seem or how bad it might smell, is by faith and in truth money, internally circumcised Jews.|Karl Marx}}--> | |||
==Analysis== | |||
===Antisemitism=== | |||
===Other interpretations=== | |||
In "Marx and the Economic-Jew Stereotype", Marxist [[Hal Draper]] argued that Marx's views constituted a typical form of antisemitism for his time and cited peers of Marx, including [[Stirner]] and [[Hegel]], who used the term ''Jew'' to refer to [[usury|usurer]]s.<ref>{{cite web |title=Marx Myths and Legends|last=Draper|first=Hal | website=Marxists Internet Archive | url=https://www.marxists.org/subject/marxmyths/hal-draper/article.htm | access-date=14 Oct 2023}}</ref> | In "Marx and the Economic-Jew Stereotype", Marxist [[Hal Draper]] argued that Marx's views constituted a typical form of antisemitism for his time and cited peers of Marx, including [[Stirner]] and [[Hegel]], who used the term ''Jew'' to refer to [[usury|usurer]]s.<ref>{{cite web |title=Marx Myths and Legends|last=Draper|first=Hal | website=Marxists Internet Archive | url=https://www.marxists.org/subject/marxmyths/hal-draper/article.htm | access-date=14 Oct 2023}}</ref> | ||
Leftist commentator [[Ben Burgis]] argued in ''[[Jacobin (magazine)|Jacobin]]'' magazine that while Marx's infamous letter about Lassalle constituted a "stain on his character", the language in "On the Jewish Question" uses "some casually antisemitic language and metaphors" in order to create "essentially an extended pun on the word 'Judentum' with its colloquial double meanings as 'Judaism' and 'commerce.' His overall point, though, was to argue ''against'' Bauer and ''for'' equal rights for German Jews."<ref name="burgis" /> | |||
==Notes== | ==Notes== | ||
{{notelist}} | {{notelist}} | ||
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{{Reflist}} | {{Reflist}} | ||
[[Category:antisemitism]][[category:karl Marx]][[category:issues]] | [[Category:antisemitism]][[category:karl Marx]][[category:issues]] | ||
{{stub}} | {{Marxism-stub}} | ||
Latest revision as of 19:09, 18 February 2024
The views of Karl Marx on Jews are by far the most popular topic of discussion among anti-Marxists and anti-communists. Implications that Karl Marx, whose Jewish father converted to Christianity, was an antisemite or a self-hating Jew are ubiquitous in both right-wing and liberal attacks on Marxism,[1][2] either in the form of ad hominem or by directly connecting antisemitism with his critique of capitalism.[a] Many Marxists and leftists argue that he held views typical of the antisemitism of the 19th century, while others claim that his views have been misrepresented.[3][4][5] Some leftists argue that Marx's views, especially his private letters with his lifelong friend Friedrich Engels, constitute ironic racism.[citation needed]
Writings
Marx almost never referenced Jews in his critique of capitalist society, only mentioning them in passing when describing their role in the history of mercantile trade in Europe and the origin of antisemitism as a form of nascent anti-capitalism.
On the Jewish Question
"On the Jewish Question" is an important Marxist text for the historical study of Marx's ideas. However, the work is often interpreted as containing latent or overt antisemitic rhetoric. Critics sometimes anachronistically connect the work's title to the 20th century Nazi "Final Solution to the Jewish Question"[instances needed], but the 19th century use of the phrase referred to the specific issues caused by the Napoleonic emancipation of the Jews and the rise of liberal Jewish thought.
Capital
Private correspondence
Analysis
Antisemitism
Other interpretations
In "Marx and the Economic-Jew Stereotype", Marxist Hal Draper argued that Marx's views constituted a typical form of antisemitism for his time and cited peers of Marx, including Stirner and Hegel, who used the term Jew to refer to usurers.[6]
Leftist commentator Ben Burgis argued in Jacobin magazine that while Marx's infamous letter about Lassalle constituted a "stain on his character", the language in "On the Jewish Question" uses "some casually antisemitic language and metaphors" in order to create "essentially an extended pun on the word 'Judentum' with its colloquial double meanings as 'Judaism' and 'commerce.' His overall point, though, was to argue against Bauer and for equal rights for German Jews."[5]
Notes
- ↑ "Marxism, arguably, is little more than a conspiracy theory in which the ruling classes – i.e., “the Jews” – control and manipulate the economy to enrich themselves at the expense of poor workers."[1]
"It was Marx’s sinister achievement to marry the economic anti-Semitism of the French socialists to the philosophical anti-Semitism of the German idealists and so to construct a new kind of anti-Semitic conspiracy theory which was to be an intellectual rehearsal for his general theory of capital."[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Singer, Saul Jay (8 May 2019). "Karl Marx: A Self-Hating Jew". JewishPress.com. Retrieved 14 Oct 2023.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Johnson, Paul (1 Apr 1984). "Marxism vs. the Jews". Commentary Magazine. Retrieved 14 Oct 2023.
- ↑ Leon, Abram (29 Jun 2020). "The Jewish Question (1. Scientific study of Jewish history)". Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved 14 Oct 2023.
- ↑ Rose, John (2008). "Karl Marx, Abram Leon, and the Jewish Question: A reappraisal". Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved 14 Oct 2023.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Burgis, Ben (4 May 2022). "No, Karl Marx Wasn't a Hideous Racist". Jacobin. Retrieved 14 Oct 2023.
- ↑ Draper, Hal. "Marx Myths and Legends". Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved 14 Oct 2023.
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