Changes

A case in point is the Marxists Internet Archive, which bowdlerizes some of Marx's writings (including ''On the Jewish Question'')<ref>The Marxists Internet Archive softens "secular cult" (''weltliche Kultus'') to "worldly religion" and "Haggling" (''schacher'') to "[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/jewish-question/ Huckstering]." Cf. Allan Megill, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=yLF7hxDPWNoC Karl Marx: the burden of reason (why Marx rejected politics and the market)]'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002) ISBN 0742511669, p. 164. “When Marx used this particular term he borrowed from the vocabulary of anti-Semitism,” writes Werner Cohn, professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia. “Ultimately derived from the Hebrew ''sakhar'', commerce, ''schacher'' became in the nineteenth century a very specific term of abuse.” Cohn cites the famous German dictionary written by the brothers Grimm: “''[http://urts55.uni-trier.de:8080/Projekte/WBB2009/DWB//call_wbgui_py_from_form?textpattern=schacher&lemmapattern= Schacher] .... Kleinhandel, besonders gewinnsüchtiger Hausirhandel, gewöhnlich von den Juden, in verächtichem Sinne gebraucht''” [“Haggling, particularly greedy haggling, usually by Jews, with the connotation despised”], Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, ''Deutsches Wörterbuch'' (Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1893), vol. 8, p. 1959, as cited in Werner Cohn, “[http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a784656037~frm=abslink From Victim to Shylock and Oppressor: The New Image of the Jew in the Trotskyist Movement],” ''Journal of Communist Studies'', vol. 7, no. 1 (March 1991), pp. 46-68</ref> and deletes others, such as “The Russian Loan” (See below)<ref>So embarrassing is this article to apologists for Marx that the Marxists Internet Archive has dropped it down the [http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/ns-dict.html Memory Hole]. The Web site's collection of [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/subject/newspapers/new-york-tribune.htm Marx's articles from the ''New York Daily Tribune'', August 21, 1852-February 1861], skips from November 16, 1855 to January 12, 1856&mdash;erasing this article as effectively as [http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/research/digitaltampering/stalin1+2.jpg Stalin erased Nikolai Yezhov]. (Without mentioning this article by name, the archive does mention that the 1897 publication of the book in which this article was reprinted [http://marxists.org/archive/hyndman/1910/07/marx-and-engels.htm “was not 'helpful'.”]) The site claims that "In the past, some writers who have contributed to Marxism have expressed racist... views. The MIA generally [http://www.marxists.org/admin/intro/index.htm does not “filter out” such views]; if we are archiving the work of a writer, any and all of that writer’s work may be included...." The site's censorship of Marx himself is an exception.</ref> altogether. Others argue the point directly: “To designate Marx as an anti-Semite is nothing but cold war propaganda,” wrote the Marxist<ref>Lawrence Jacob Friedman, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=tFJvyOpFJtUC Identity's architect: a biography of Erik H. Erikson]'' (Harvard University Press, 2000) ISBN 067400437X, p. 422</ref> Erich Fromm.<ref>Karl Marx, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=ZprWAAAAMAAJ Early writings]'', T. B. Bottomore, tr. (McGraw-Hill, 1964), p. v</ref> The idea that Marx was an anti-Semite, agrees David Hirsh of the University of London, is "a standard misreading" of ''On the Jewish Question''.<ref>David Hirsh, Book Review: "[http://engageonline.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/book/ Perry and Schweitzer, ''Antisemitic myths: a historical and contemporary anthology'']," ''[http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/01419870.asp Ethnic and Racial Studies]'', Vol. 32, No. 4 (May 2009), pp. 749-750</ref> The idea that Marx was in any sense anti-Semitic is a “myth,” concurs Warwick University Sociology Professor Robert Fine (a [http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/sociology/staff/emeritus/robertfine/home/mycv/ member] of the [http://www.cseweb.org.uk/ Conference of Socialist Economists]), arising in part out of what he calls a “deafness” to Marx's “ironic style.” Marx's claim that “Money is the jealous god of Israel,” contends Fine, is actually a “witty and deeply ironic” critique of that claim.<ref>Robert Fine, "[http://www.engageonline.org.uk/journal/index.php?journal_id=10&article_id=33 Karl Marx and the Radical Critique of Anti-Semitism], ''Engage'', Issue 2 (May 2006)</ref>

A case in point is the Marxists Internet Archive, which bowdlerizes some of Marx's writings (including ''On the Jewish Question'')<ref>The Marxists Internet Archive softens "secular cult" (''weltliche Kultus'') to "worldly religion" and "Haggling" (''schacher'') to "[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/jewish-question/ Huckstering]." Cf. Allan Megill, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=yLF7hxDPWNoC Karl Marx: the burden of reason (why Marx rejected politics and the market)]'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002) ISBN 0742511669, p. 164. “When Marx used this particular term he borrowed from the vocabulary of anti-Semitism,” writes Werner Cohn, professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia. “Ultimately derived from the Hebrew ''sakhar'', commerce, ''schacher'' became in the nineteenth century a very specific term of abuse.” Cohn cites the famous German dictionary written by the brothers Grimm: “''[http://urts55.uni-trier.de:8080/Projekte/WBB2009/DWB//call_wbgui_py_from_form?textpattern=schacher&lemmapattern= Schacher] .... Kleinhandel, besonders gewinnsüchtiger Hausirhandel, gewöhnlich von den Juden, in verächtichem Sinne gebraucht''” [“Haggling, particularly greedy haggling, usually by Jews, with the connotation despised”], Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, ''Deutsches Wörterbuch'' (Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1893), vol. 8, p. 1959, as cited in Werner Cohn, “[http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a784656037~frm=abslink From Victim to Shylock and Oppressor: The New Image of the Jew in the Trotskyist Movement],” ''Journal of Communist Studies'', vol. 7, no. 1 (March 1991), pp. 46-68</ref> and deletes others, such as “The Russian Loan” (See below)<ref>So embarrassing is this article to apologists for Marx that the Marxists Internet Archive has dropped it down the [http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/ns-dict.html Memory Hole]. The Web site's collection of [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/subject/newspapers/new-york-tribune.htm Marx's articles from the ''New York Daily Tribune'', August 21, 1852-February 1861], skips from November 16, 1855 to January 12, 1856&mdash;erasing this article as effectively as [http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/research/digitaltampering/stalin1+2.jpg Stalin erased Nikolai Yezhov]. (Without mentioning this article by name, the archive does mention that the 1897 publication of the book in which this article was reprinted [http://marxists.org/archive/hyndman/1910/07/marx-and-engels.htm “was not 'helpful'.”]) The site claims that "In the past, some writers who have contributed to Marxism have expressed racist... views. The MIA generally [http://www.marxists.org/admin/intro/index.htm does not “filter out” such views]; if we are archiving the work of a writer, any and all of that writer’s work may be included...." The site's censorship of Marx himself is an exception.</ref> altogether. Others argue the point directly: “To designate Marx as an anti-Semite is nothing but cold war propaganda,” wrote the Marxist<ref>Lawrence Jacob Friedman, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=tFJvyOpFJtUC Identity's architect: a biography of Erik H. Erikson]'' (Harvard University Press, 2000) ISBN 067400437X, p. 422</ref> Erich Fromm.<ref>Karl Marx, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=ZprWAAAAMAAJ Early writings]'', T. B. Bottomore, tr. (McGraw-Hill, 1964), p. v</ref> The idea that Marx was an anti-Semite, agrees David Hirsh of the University of London, is "a standard misreading" of ''On the Jewish Question''.<ref>David Hirsh, Book Review: "[http://engageonline.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/book/ Perry and Schweitzer, ''Antisemitic myths: a historical and contemporary anthology'']," ''[http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/01419870.asp Ethnic and Racial Studies]'', Vol. 32, No. 4 (May 2009), pp. 749-750</ref> The idea that Marx was in any sense anti-Semitic is a “myth,” concurs Warwick University Sociology Professor Robert Fine (a [http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/sociology/staff/emeritus/robertfine/home/mycv/ member] of the [http://www.cseweb.org.uk/ Conference of Socialist Economists]), arising in part out of what he calls a “deafness” to Marx's “ironic style.” Marx's claim that “Money is the jealous god of Israel,” contends Fine, is actually a “witty and deeply ironic” critique of that claim.<ref>Robert Fine, "[http://www.engageonline.org.uk/journal/index.php?journal_id=10&article_id=33 Karl Marx and the Radical Critique of Anti-Semitism], ''Engage'', Issue 2 (May 2006)</ref>

"[http://www.joelkovel.com/newreadings.html#ecosocialism1 Eco-socialist]" Joel Kovel disagrees: "No attempt to read these pages as a play on words can conceal the hostility which infuses them, and is precisely directed against the identity of the Jew."<ref>Joel Kovel, “[http://www.springerlink.com/content/p2q3w7416w7h1516/ Marx on the Jewish Question],” ''Dialectical Anthropology'', Vol. 8, No. 1-2, (1983) pp.31-46</ref> Moreover, Marx expressed similar contempt for Jews, not only in his private correspondence, but in his other writings as well. In ''The German Ideology'', Marx likens the bourgeoisie to Jews, whom he describes as criminals and hypocrites: “The attitude of the bourgeois to the institutions of his regime is like that of the Jew to the law; he evades them whenever it is possible to do so in each individual case, but he wants everyone else to observe them.”<ref>Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=DdMLAAAAYAAJ The German Ideology: including Theses on Feuerbach and introduction to The critique of political economy]'' (Prometheus Books, 1998) ISBN 1573922587), p. 194</ref> In ''The Holy Family'' Marx expands on the theme of "the material, mass-type Jews," arguing that "real ''secular'' Jewry, and hence ''religious'' Jewry ''too''... finds its final development in the ''money system''," concluding that "the task of abolishing the essence of Jewry is actually the task of abolishing the ''Jewish character of civil society''... the most extreme expression of which is the ''money system''."<ref>Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=KKPaAAAAMAAJ Collected Works'', Vol. 4] (Lawrence & Wishart, 1975) ISBN 0853152942, pp. 94, 109-110</ref>  

"[http://www.joelkovel.com/newreadings.html#ecosocialism1 Eco-socialist]" Joel Kovel disagrees: "No attempt to read these pages as a play on words can conceal the hostility which infuses them, and is precisely directed against the identity of the Jew."<ref>Joel Kovel, “[http://www.springerlink.com/content/p2q3w7416w7h1516/ Marx on the Jewish Question],” ''Dialectical Anthropology'', Vol. 8, No. 1-2, (1983) pp.31-46</ref> Moreover, Marx expressed his contempt for Jews, not only in "On the Jewish Question," but in other writings as well. In ''The German Ideology'', Marx likens the bourgeoisie to Jews, whom he describes as criminals and hypocrites: “The attitude of the bourgeois to the institutions of his regime is like that of the Jew to the law; he evades them whenever it is possible to do so in each individual case, but he wants everyone else to observe them.”<ref>Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=DdMLAAAAYAAJ The German Ideology: including Theses on Feuerbach and introduction to The critique of political economy]'' (Prometheus Books, 1998) ISBN 1573922587), p. 194</ref> In ''The Holy Family'' Marx expands on the theme of "the material, mass-type Jews," arguing that "real ''secular'' Jewry, and hence ''religious'' Jewry ''too''... finds its final development in the ''money system''," concluding that "the task of abolishing the essence of Jewry is actually the task of abolishing the ''Jewish character of civil society''... the most extreme expression of which is the ''money system''."<ref>Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=KKPaAAAAMAAJ Collected Works'', Vol. 4] (Lawrence & Wishart, 1975) ISBN 0853152942, pp. 94, 109-110</ref>  

Extreme as these German works were, Marx surpassed them in vituperation with an article he wrote for publication in America, where according to Marx the "practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world" had achieved what he called "its unambiguous and normal expression."<ref>Karl Marx, "On The Jewish Question," ''Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher'', February 1844, reprinted in Karl Marx, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=TKdLO2jvbqsC Early writings]'' (Penguin, 1992) ISBN 0140445749, p. 232</ref> "The Russian Loan," published in the ''New York Daily Tribune'', did not just savage the Jews as capitalists, but specifically exploited the anti-Semitic stereotype of Jews as usurers:

Extreme as these German works were, Marx surpassed them in vituperation with an article he wrote for publication in America, where according to Marx the "practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world" had achieved what he called "its unambiguous and normal expression."<ref>Karl Marx, "On The Jewish Question," ''Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher'', February 1844, reprinted in Karl Marx, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=TKdLO2jvbqsC Early writings]'' (Penguin, 1992) ISBN 0140445749, p. 232</ref> "The Russian Loan," published in the ''New York Daily Tribune'', did not just savage the Jews as capitalists, but specifically exploited the anti-Semitic stereotype of Jews as usurers:

The fact that 1855 years ago Christ drove the Jewish moneychangers out of the temple, and that the moneychangers of our age enlisted on the side of tyranny happen again chiefly to be Jews, is perhaps no more than a historical coincidence. The loan-mongering Jews of Europe do only on a larger and more obnoxious scale what many others do on one smaller and less significant. But it is only because the Jews are so strong that it is timely and expedient to expose and stigmatize their organization.<ref>Karl Marx, "The Russian Loan," ''New-York Daily Tribune'', January 4, 1856, reprinted in Richard Aveling and Eleanor Marx Aveling, eds., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=D75MAAAAYAAJ The Eastern question: a reprint of letters written 1853-1856 dealing with the events of the Crimean War]'' (S. Sonnenschein & co., lim., 1897), pp. 600-606. So embarrassing is this article to apologists for Marx that the Marxists Internet Archive has dropped it down the [http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/ns-dict.html Memory Hole]. The Web site's collection of [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/subject/newspapers/new-york-tribune.htm Marx's articles from the ''New York Daily Tribune'', August 21, 1852-February 1861], skips from November 16, 1855 to January 12, 1856&mdash;erasing this article as effectively as [http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/research/digitaltampering/stalin1+2.jpg Stalin erased Nikolai Yezhov]. (Without mentioning this article by name, the archive does mention that the 1897 publication of the book in which this article was reprinted [http://marxists.org/archive/hyndman/1910/07/marx-and-engels.htm “was not 'helpful'.”]) The site claims that "In the past, some writers who have contributed to Marxism have expressed racist... views. The MIA generally [http://www.marxists.org/admin/intro/index.htm does not “filter out” such views]; if we are archiving the work of a writer, any and all of that writer’s work may be included...." The site's censorship of Marx himself is an exception.</ref>}}

The fact that 1855 years ago Christ drove the Jewish moneychangers out of the temple, and that the moneychangers of our age enlisted on the side of tyranny happen again chiefly to be Jews, is perhaps no more than a historical coincidence. The loan-mongering Jews of Europe do only on a larger and more obnoxious scale what many others do on one smaller and less significant. But it is only because the Jews are so strong that it is timely and expedient to expose and stigmatize their organization.<ref>Karl Marx, "The Russian Loan," ''New-York Daily Tribune'', January 4, 1856, reprinted in Richard Aveling and Eleanor Marx Aveling, eds., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=D75MAAAAYAAJ The Eastern question: a reprint of letters written 1853-1856 dealing with the events of the Crimean War]'' (S. Sonnenschein & co., lim., 1897), pp. 600-606. So embarrassing is this article to apologists for Marx that the Marxists Internet Archive has dropped it down the [http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/ns-dict.html Memory Hole]. The Web site's collection of [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/subject/newspapers/new-york-tribune.htm Marx's articles from the ''New York Daily Tribune'', August 21, 1852-February 1861], skips from November 16, 1855 to January 12, 1856&mdash;erasing this article as effectively as [http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/research/digitaltampering/stalin1+2.jpg Stalin erased Nikolai Yezhov]. (Without mentioning this article by name, the archive does mention that the 1897 publication of the book in which this article was reprinted [http://marxists.org/archive/hyndman/1910/07/marx-and-engels.htm “was not 'helpful'.”]) The site claims that "In the past, some writers who have contributed to Marxism have expressed racist... views. The MIA generally [http://www.marxists.org/admin/intro/index.htm does not “filter out” such views]; if we are archiving the work of a writer, any and all of that writer’s work may be included...." The site's censorship of Marx himself is an exception.</ref>}}

In ''On the Jewish Question'' itself, writes Dennis K. Fischman, assistant professor of social science at Boston University, "Marx seems fairly to bristle with anti-Jewish sentiments."<ref>Dennis K. Fischman, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=6iqVtOAr8jgC Political discourse in exile: Karl Marx and the Jewish question]'' (Univ of Massachusetts Press, 1991) ISBN 0870237462, p. 13</ref> The views Marx expressed in that essay "were part of the classic repertoire of anti-Semitism," according to Gertrude Himmelfarb, professor of history at the Graduate School of the City University of New York.<ref>Gertrude Himmelfarb, “[http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/the--ldquo-real-rdquo--marx-6980 The 'Real' Marx],” ''Commentary'', April 1985</ref> It is “almost a classic anti-Semitic tract,” agrees Johnson.<ref>Paul Johnson, "[http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/marxism-vs--the-jews-6827 Marxism vs. the Jews]," ''Commentary'', April 1984</ref> It is "without any question an anti-Semitic tract," admits even Kovel, former [http://www.joelkovel.com/joelkovel.html Alger Hiss Professor] of Social Studies at Bard College.<ref>Joel Kovel, “[http://www.springerlink.com/content/p2q3w7416w7h1516/ Marx on the Jewish Question],” ''Dialectical Anthropology'', Vol. 8, No. 1-2, (1983) pp.31-46</ref> Indeed, concurs Lewis, it has become “one of the classics of anti-Semitic propaganda.” <ref>Bernard Lewis, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=GteStbiDEjAC Semites and anti-Semites: An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice]'' (W. W. Norton & Company, 1999) ISBN 0393318397, p. 112</ref> This essay was "reprinted, widely quoted, and praised," adds Himmelfarb, "and became the exemplar of a classic genre of socialist anti-Semitism."<ref>[http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/marx-14979 Reader Letters: Marx], ''Commentary'', August 1985</ref>

In ''On the Jewish Question'' itself, writes Dennis K. Fischman, assistant professor of social science at Boston University, "Marx seems fairly to bristle with anti-Jewish sentiments."<ref>Dennis K. Fischman, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=6iqVtOAr8jgC Political discourse in exile: Karl Marx and the Jewish question]'' (Univ of Massachusetts Press, 1991) ISBN 0870237462, p. 13</ref> The views Marx expressed in that essay "were part of the classic repertoire of anti-Semitism," according to Gertrude Himmelfarb, professor of history at the Graduate School of the City University of New York.<ref>Gertrude Himmelfarb, “[http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/the--ldquo-real-rdquo--marx-6980 The 'Real' Marx],” ''Commentary'', April 1985</ref> It is “almost a classic anti-Semitic tract,” agrees Johnson.<ref>Paul Johnson, "[http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/marxism-vs--the-jews-6827 Marxism vs. the Jews]," ''Commentary'', April 1984</ref> It is "without any question an anti-Semitic tract," admits even Kovel, former [http://www.joelkovel.com/joelkovel.html Alger Hiss Professor] of Social Studies at Bard College.<ref>Joel Kovel, “[http://www.springerlink.com/content/p2q3w7416w7h1516/ Marx on the Jewish Question],” ''Dialectical Anthropology'', Vol. 8, No. 1-2, (1983) pp.31-46</ref> Indeed, concurs Lewis, it has become “one of the classics of anti-Semitic propaganda.” <ref>Bernard Lewis, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=GteStbiDEjAC Semites and anti-Semites: An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice]'' (W. W. Norton & Company, 1999) ISBN 0393318397, p. 112</ref> This essay was "reprinted, widely quoted, and praised," adds Himmelfarb, "and became the exemplar of a classic genre of socialist anti-Semitism."<ref>[http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/marx-14979 Reader Letters: Marx], ''Commentary'', August 1985</ref>