Language:
English
Year of publication:
1992
Titel der Quelle:
History of Political Thought
Angaben zur Quelle:
13,3 (1992) 463-485
Keywords:
Marx, Karl,
;
Bauer, Bruno,
;
Jews History 1800-2000
;
Jews Emancipation
Abstract:
Based on a lecture delivered in Boston, 1990. Argues that Marx wrote his essay "Zur Judenfrage" as a plea for the political emancipation of Jews, contrary to those critics who view it as antisemitic. Bauer had asserted that Jewish religious law was incompatible with freedom and citizenship in a secular state. Marx criticized him for talking about an abstract Judaism rather than about real Jews. When he referred to these Jews as "hucksters, " he was describing (albeit in his usual offensive terms) actual conditions in Germany, where more than half of the Jews engaged in commerce; he did not blame this fact on Judaism but on the historical situation. Ultimately, in his view, it was Christian individualism which had given rise to a civil society in which "Jewish" mercantilism had become universal. Thus there were no differences between Jews and Christians that would justify withholding political rights from the Jews. Both Judaism and Christianity would finally pass away and full human emancipation be attained through the emancipation of society from mercantilism.
Note:
In Hebrew:
,
"תיאוריה וביקורת" 6 (1995) 45-59
URL:
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