Re: [Marxism] What to make of Marx's anti-semitism? (his essay, 'On the Jewish Question')

[Einde O'Callaghan <einde@xxxxxx>]

Joaquín wrote:
> Partly some of Marx's expression on "the Jewish question" reflect that he
> was, after all, a man of his times, partly our shock reflects that we are
> not people of his times.
>
> There is a  very good book by Abraham Leon, a Belgian Jewish Trotskyist
> resistance leader, which is probably a good place to start learning about
> the social phenomenon Marx addressed. That is "The Jewish Question: A
> Marxist Interpretation." Pathfinder used to publish it. I don't know if it
> is still in print.
The book is available on-line on my site, REDS - Die Roten, at
http://www.marxists.de/religion/leon/index.htm - it's also available in
the Marxists' Internet Archive at
http://www.marxists.org/subject/jewish/leon/index.htm

On thios question it's very instructive to read Hal Draper's "Marx and
teh Economic-Jew Stereotype", an appendix to volume one of his
magnificent "Karl Marx's theory of Revolution". This sets the article in
context and defends Marx against the accusation of anti-Semitism. It
should also be pointed out that the article was a defence of Jewish
emancipation in reply to an article rejecting Jewish emancipation
written by his former associate Bruno Bauer.

Most discussions of the article neglect to consider the contextin which
it was written and tend to distort the tenor because they take no
account of changes in terminology since Marx's time. It should also be
noted that Marx was at the time still a radical democrat groping his way
to what a few years later emerged as historical materialism.

The article is at http://www.marxists.de/religion/draper/marxjewg.htm

Einde O'Callaghan


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