Changes

Jump to navigation Jump to search
1,044 bytes added ,  01:49, February 29, 2012
Line 55: Line 55:  
==Marx's anti-Semitism and racism==
 
==Marx's anti-Semitism and racism==
 
Among the money-lenders in London, Marx "made use of the Jews"&mdash;particularly "the Bambergers, Steifer and Spielmann," writes economic historian W.O. Henderson, "to raise small loans and to discount bills of exchange" from his editor&mdash;although he became "furious when they pressed him to honour debts due for repayment," showing "his contempt by always referring to them as 'Jew (or little Jew) Bamberger' and 'Jew Spielmann.'"<ref>William Otto Henderson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=a9BvGA43rAQC Marx and Engels and the English workers: and other essays]'' (Psychology Press, 1989) ISBN 0714633348, p. 70</ref> (Elsewhere, he called Bamberger a member of "the stock-exchange synagogue.")<ref>Léon Poliakov, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=w39m4aohL9gC The History of Anti-semitism: From Voltaire to Wagner]'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003) ISBN 0812218655, p. 424-425</ref> "His private letters are replete with anti-Semitic remarks, caricatures, and crude epithets," writes Marx's biographer, Saul K. Padover: "'Levy's Jewish nose,' 'usurers,' 'Jew-boy,' 'nigger-Jew,' etc."<ref>Saul Kussiel Padover, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=Aw8YAAAAIAAJ Karl Marx, an intimate biography] (McGraw-Hill, 1978) ISBN 0070480729, p. 171</ref> Marx "sprayed anti-Semitic insults at his enemies with savage glee," writes Francis Wheen:<ref>Francis Wheen, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=3KOyuSakn80C Karl Marx: A Life]'' (W.W. Norton & Company, 2001) ISBN 0393321576, p. 55</ref> "The Jew Steinthal, with the bland smile"; "that pig... is a Jew by the name of Meier"; he called Max Friedlander "the cursed Jew of Vienna," Achille Fould a "stock-exchange Jew,"  and Joseph Süß Oppenheimer "the Jew Süß of Egypt;" he even called his doctor a Jew for pressing him for payment.<ref>Léon Poliakov, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=w39m4aohL9gC The History of Anti-semitism: From Voltaire to Wagner]'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003) ISBN 0812218655, p. 424-425</ref>
 
Among the money-lenders in London, Marx "made use of the Jews"&mdash;particularly "the Bambergers, Steifer and Spielmann," writes economic historian W.O. Henderson, "to raise small loans and to discount bills of exchange" from his editor&mdash;although he became "furious when they pressed him to honour debts due for repayment," showing "his contempt by always referring to them as 'Jew (or little Jew) Bamberger' and 'Jew Spielmann.'"<ref>William Otto Henderson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=a9BvGA43rAQC Marx and Engels and the English workers: and other essays]'' (Psychology Press, 1989) ISBN 0714633348, p. 70</ref> (Elsewhere, he called Bamberger a member of "the stock-exchange synagogue.")<ref>Léon Poliakov, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=w39m4aohL9gC The History of Anti-semitism: From Voltaire to Wagner]'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003) ISBN 0812218655, p. 424-425</ref> "His private letters are replete with anti-Semitic remarks, caricatures, and crude epithets," writes Marx's biographer, Saul K. Padover: "'Levy's Jewish nose,' 'usurers,' 'Jew-boy,' 'nigger-Jew,' etc."<ref>Saul Kussiel Padover, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=Aw8YAAAAIAAJ Karl Marx, an intimate biography] (McGraw-Hill, 1978) ISBN 0070480729, p. 171</ref> Marx "sprayed anti-Semitic insults at his enemies with savage glee," writes Francis Wheen:<ref>Francis Wheen, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=3KOyuSakn80C Karl Marx: A Life]'' (W.W. Norton & Company, 2001) ISBN 0393321576, p. 55</ref> "The Jew Steinthal, with the bland smile"; "that pig... is a Jew by the name of Meier"; he called Max Friedlander "the cursed Jew of Vienna," Achille Fould a "stock-exchange Jew,"  and Joseph Süß Oppenheimer "the Jew Süß of Egypt;" he even called his doctor a Jew for pressing him for payment.<ref>Léon Poliakov, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=w39m4aohL9gC The History of Anti-semitism: From Voltaire to Wagner]'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003) ISBN 0812218655, p. 424-425</ref>
 +
 +
Marx's anti-Semitism was not limited to his creditors, but extended to Jews in general. He once referred to a woman who, he wrote, "swamped me with her benevolence" as "the most ugly creature I ever saw in my life, a nastily Jewish physiognomy."<ref>Marx to Nanette Phillips, March 24, 1861, reprinted in [http://books.google.com/books?id=UQgiaY9f6Q4C Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels Gesamtausgabe, Volume 11] (Akademie Verlag, 2005) ISBN 3050041803, p. 404. (The text of this letter to his cousin is [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1861/letters/index.htm missing] from the Marxists Internet Archive.)</ref> On another occasion he refers to a Jewish man as "a cunning-looking Jew-boy"<ref>Marx to Engels, August 21, 1875, reprinted in Saul Kussiel Padover, ed., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=E10EAQAAIAAJ The letters of Karl Marx]'' (Prentice-Hall, 1979) ISBN 0135315336, p. 306. (The text of this  letter is [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/letters/index.htm missing] from the Marxists Internet Archive.)</ref>
    
Marx's anti-Semitism was intertwined with racism. One one occasion when fellow socialist Ferdinand Lassalle (who regularly loaned Marx money) refused him a loan, Marx complained to Engels:
 
Marx's anti-Semitism was intertwined with racism. One one occasion when fellow socialist Ferdinand Lassalle (who regularly loaned Marx money) refused him a loan, Marx complained to Engels:
 
{{cquote|The Jewish nigger Lassalle... would sooner throw money down the drain than lend it to a ‘friend’, even though his interest and capital were guaranteed.... It is now quite plain to me&mdash;as the shape of his head and the way his hair grows also testify&mdash;that he is descended from the negroes who accompanied Moses’ flight from Egypt (unless his mother or paternal grandmother interbred with a nigger).... The fellow’s importunity is also nigger-like.<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1862/letters/62_07_30a.htm Marx To Engels], July 30, 1862, in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, ''[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/cw/ Collected Works],'' Volume 41 (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975), p. 388</ref>}}
 
{{cquote|The Jewish nigger Lassalle... would sooner throw money down the drain than lend it to a ‘friend’, even though his interest and capital were guaranteed.... It is now quite plain to me&mdash;as the shape of his head and the way his hair grows also testify&mdash;that he is descended from the negroes who accompanied Moses’ flight from Egypt (unless his mother or paternal grandmother interbred with a nigger).... The fellow’s importunity is also nigger-like.<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1862/letters/62_07_30a.htm Marx To Engels], July 30, 1862, in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, ''[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/cw/ Collected Works],'' Volume 41 (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975), p. 388</ref>}}
−
Marx called Lassalle a "kinky-haired Nigger-Jew" (''kraushaariger Nigger-Jude'')<ref>Reinhold Aman, "Karl Marx, Maledictor," ''Maledicta: The International Journal of Verbal Aggression'' Vol. 6, No. 1 (1982), p. 31</ref> and continually referred to him as "Jew-boy Braun,"<ref>Andrew Valls, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=RokMSK8iOg4C Race and racism in modern philosophy]'' (Cornell University Press, 2005) ISBN 0801472741, p. 243 (The Marxists Internet Archive bowdlerizes "Jew-boy" [''Judel''] into "[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/letters/59_02_25b.htm little Jew]."</ref> "Isaac," "Baron Isaac," a "little Jew," "Ephraim the clever," "Braun Yid" and "Itzig," names commonly used by anti-Semites of the day. "[T]he exodus of the Jews from Egypt was nothing but... the expulsion of the 'leprous people' from Egypt. At the head of these lepers was an Egyptian priest, Moses," assterted Marx. "Lazarus, the leper, is therefore the prototype of the Jew, and so also of Lazare-Lassalle."<ref>Pierre Birnbaum, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=vSSrAAAAIAAJ Geography of hope: exile, the Enlightenment, disassimilation] (Stanford University Press, 2008) ISBN 0804752931, p. 68</ref>
+
Marx called Lassalle a "kinky-haired Nigger-Jew" (''kraushaariger Nigger-Jude'')<ref>Reinhold Aman, "Karl Marx, Maledictor," ''Maledicta: The International Journal of Verbal Aggression'' Vol. 6, No. 1 (1982), p. 31</ref> and continually referred to him as "Jew-boy Braun,"<ref>Andrew Valls, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=RokMSK8iOg4C Race and racism in modern philosophy]'' (Cornell University Press, 2005) ISBN 0801472741, p. 243 (The Marxists Internet Archive bowdlerizes "Jew-boy" [''Jüdel''] into "[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/letters/59_02_25b.htm little Jew]."</ref> "Isaac," "Baron Isaac," a "little Jew," "Ephraim the clever," "Braun Yid" and "Itzig," names commonly used by anti-Semites of the day. "[T]he exodus of the Jews from Egypt was nothing but... the expulsion of the 'leprous people' from Egypt. At the head of these lepers was an Egyptian priest, Moses," assterted Marx. "Lazarus, the leper, is therefore the prototype of the Jew, and so also of Lazare-Lassalle."<ref>Pierre Birnbaum, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=vSSrAAAAIAAJ Geography of hope: exile, the Enlightenment, disassimilation] (Stanford University Press, 2008) ISBN 0804752931, p. 68</ref>
    
Marx's style was shared by his companions: his wife referred to Lassalle "the little Berlin Jew,"<ref>William Otto Henderson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=a9BvGA43rAQC Marx and Engels and the English workers: and other essays]'' (Psychology Press, 1989) ISBN 0714633348, p. 71</ref> while Engels called him a "greasy Jew."<ref>Paul Johnson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=VIKGCHT1sbwC A history of the Jews]'' (HarperCollins, 1998) ISBN 0060915331, p. 350</ref>
 
Marx's style was shared by his companions: his wife referred to Lassalle "the little Berlin Jew,"<ref>William Otto Henderson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=a9BvGA43rAQC Marx and Engels and the English workers: and other essays]'' (Psychology Press, 1989) ISBN 0714633348, p. 71</ref> while Engels called him a "greasy Jew."<ref>Paul Johnson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=VIKGCHT1sbwC A history of the Jews]'' (HarperCollins, 1998) ISBN 0060915331, p. 350</ref>
SkipCaptcha, Automoderated users, edit
7,178

edits

Navigation menu