107 books
—
11 voters
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “On the Jewish Question (Readings in Modern Jewish History)” as Want to Read:
On the Jewish Question (Readings in Modern Jewish History)
by
Karl Marx's views on the Jews Question and Zionism...
50 pages
Published
by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
(first published 1844)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
On the Jewish Question,
please sign up.
Recent Questions
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30

Start your review of On the Jewish Question (Readings in Modern Jewish History)

Good discussion on the relationship between church and state, suffrage, and sovereignty. Marx gives a brief analysis of Hegel's "Philosophy of Right" and "The Declaration of the Rights of Man". It's not as sensational as Arthur Kemp purports; nevertheless, Marx was definitely aware of the problems of Jewish culture, which is described in part two of this book: "The Capacity of Present-day Jews and Christians to Become Free". The articles Marx wrote while working at the New York Tribune would
...more

It's definitely important to be critical about Marx's very dubious and prejudiced portrait of Jewishness in his pamphlet "On the Jewish Question". But the presentation in this little book isn't critical so much as slanderous.
I'm not sure where the title " A world without Jews" comes from, but the title Marx gave to the essay which is reprinted here is fairly straightforwardly translated to "On The Jewish Question". The Jewish Question was a book written by young Hegelian Bruno Bauer which Marx ...more
I'm not sure where the title " A world without Jews" comes from, but the title Marx gave to the essay which is reprinted here is fairly straightforwardly translated to "On The Jewish Question". The Jewish Question was a book written by young Hegelian Bruno Bauer which Marx ...more

Writen in 1842, Marx, with this critique on Bauer's "The Jewish Question", develops a theoritical approach on the nature of the rights of the man. These rights in the industrialised society are divided in political rights and human rights, reflecting the division in the living of the man of the feudal system, where all of its aspects were included in the public/state life and were in part political. After the shutering of that system, while the political rights stand for all people as equals and
...more

"And how is religious opposition made impossible? By abolishing religion. As soon as Jew and Christian come to see in their respective religions nothing more than stages in the development of the human mind—snake skins which have been cast off by history, and man as the snake who
clothed himself in them—they will no longer find themselves in religious opposition, but in a purely critical, scientific and human relationship. Science will then constitute their unity"
A decent, albeit brief, essay ...more
clothed himself in them—they will no longer find themselves in religious opposition, but in a purely critical, scientific and human relationship. Science will then constitute their unity"
A decent, albeit brief, essay ...more

Hitler and his German socialism obtained sick ideas from Marx and this publication. Soviet socialism obtained similar ideas from Marx and this publication. Hitler and German socialism obtained sick ideas from Soviet socialism. Soviet socialism created the "Jewish Autonomous Olbast" (JAO) in 1936. Two years after the JAO was founded, Stalin targeted Jews living in the JAO in purges. Of course, a few years later, in 1939, German socialism & Soviet socialism joined to launch the WWII, invading
...more

So Karl Marx was evidently an Anti-Semite. His argument is actually pretty predictable--religion in general is messed up, and the Jewish religion in particular is really just about capitalism, so once capitalism has been gotten rid of, Judaism will go away, and then Jewish people won't have to worry about being discriminated against. The core of this piece is just anti-Jewish propaganda with a Communist twist. Makes Nazi associations of Jews with Communists all the more ironic.

Lit. Early Marx, sharp and polemical articulating the relationships between democratic struggles (political emancipation) and the communist horizon (human emancipation). Particularly relevant in the context of current debates about Identity politics and the relevance of universal emancipatory politics.
Not the easiest read outside of familiarity with the debates of the times, I recommend reading the wiki entry before tackling it.
Not the easiest read outside of familiarity with the debates of the times, I recommend reading the wiki entry before tackling it.

A response by Marx essentially critiquing Bauer's conflation of what Marx believed was an important distinction between political and human emancipation for Jew and Christian alike. Political emancipation being a step towards human emancipation in that it creates a sharp seperation from civil society (where non-political human activity takes place) and the state, allowing the state to no longer be subservient to a dominant religion and therefore be able to relegate the religious lives of the
...more

This edition is a childish piece of propaganda by the translator in question, Dagobert D. Runes. The title and presentation, as well as the embarrassingly incompetent introduction and appendix demonstrate, are quite obviously driven by ideological fervor and not by a passion for fair treatment. Another (one star) review of this edition by a user called "Andrew" (which you can find here: Read Andrew's 1-star review of A World without Jews by Karl Marx
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) ...more
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) ...more

Essay on the emancipation of jews already showing some of the ideas Marx would come to develop. Very much his own style. Using many common places, things people say and criticing or starting his points by stating someone's view/argument (here he quotes specially Bruno Bauer). Appeals to the fact that they are also exploited and religion and statehood emancipation are neither possible or coherent but if they assume their condition. Shows (unsurprisingly) a materialistic view of religion

I don't know why Jews would publish this when this book goes against Judaism. He was a Jew who concluded that the only way to get rid of judaism is to get it out of society. I am he agrees with the conclusion of Bauer that the only way to get rid of this materialist society is get rid of religion but I could see why this work has influenced in his other works.
The Young Hegelians were retards and so was most of the socialists.
The Young Hegelians were retards and so was most of the socialists.

Typically dismissed as a 'self-hating Jew', Karl Marx brings out the egotism, self-aggrandizement, paranoia and self-inflicted persecution of the Jewish religion and people. Doubtless this would be dismissed as 'anti-semitism' in today's media, despite the fact that it is (like many things 'anti-semitic') entirely correct.

With the exception of the dreadfully anti-semitic second section, the first half of this text is an excellent example of Marx, early on, demonstrating his use of "immanent critique" to question the assumptions of Liberalism, Hegel, and the Young Hegelians. It is a great text to get a sense of the dialectical method and how it can be applied in practice.

Nice
...more

I have delayed for long time a more serious and balanced study of Marx's thought. At this time it is impossible for me to evaluate properly the original in German, thus, the best Anglosaxon based translation I found was from "The Works Of Marx and Engels" (Mobile Reference).
For a clean guide in English (with German references from the original), check out marxists.org version.
For me, "On The Jewish Question" was quite a forced critique on Bauer's "The Jewish Question". Which leads me to he ...more
For a clean guide in English (with German references from the original), check out marxists.org version.
For me, "On The Jewish Question" was quite a forced critique on Bauer's "The Jewish Question". Which leads me to he ...more

Apr 30, 2015
Lily Ableman
rated it
did not like it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2015-reading-list
Dude, imagine playing a drinking game where you had to take a sip for every time Marx mentioned political emancipation or civil society.
YOU WOULD DIE.
Honestly, reading this kind of killed my soul. Not only is it super anti-Semitic (okay, yeah, I know he wasn't really talking about Jewish people specifically in this essay and he was making a larger point about society freeing itself from the religion of money - aka capitalism - but dude, it's really obvious he didn't like Jews), but Marx also ...more
YOU WOULD DIE.
Honestly, reading this kind of killed my soul. Not only is it super anti-Semitic (okay, yeah, I know he wasn't really talking about Jewish people specifically in this essay and he was making a larger point about society freeing itself from the religion of money - aka capitalism - but dude, it's really obvious he didn't like Jews), but Marx also ...more

Interesting Quote:
"Religion is precisely the recognition of man in a roundabout way, through an intermediary. The state is the intermediary between man and man’s freedom. Just as Christ is the intermediary to whom man transfers the burden of all his divinity, all his religious constraint, so the state is the intermediary to whom man transfers all his non-divinity and all his human unconstraint.
-Karl Marx, On the Jewish Question
"Religion is precisely the recognition of man in a roundabout way, through an intermediary. The state is the intermediary between man and man’s freedom. Just as Christ is the intermediary to whom man transfers the burden of all his divinity, all his religious constraint, so the state is the intermediary to whom man transfers all his non-divinity and all his human unconstraint.
-Karl Marx, On the Jewish Question
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Marx was catalyst for German socialism & Soviet socialism | 1 | 1 | Jan 03, 2019 02:41PM | |
Marx was catalyst for German socialism & Soviet socialism | 1 | 1 | Jan 03, 2019 02:03PM |
Karl Marx, Ph.D. (University of Jena, 1841) was a social scientist who was a key contributor to the development of Communist theory.
Descended from a long line of rabbis, Marx born in Prussian Rhineland. His father converted to Protestantism shortly before Karl's birth. Educated at the Universities of Bonn, Jena, and Berlin, Marx founded the Socialist newspaper Vorwarts in 1844 in Paris. After ...more
Descended from a long line of rabbis, Marx born in Prussian Rhineland. His father converted to Protestantism shortly before Karl's birth. Educated at the Universities of Bonn, Jena, and Berlin, Marx founded the Socialist newspaper Vorwarts in 1844 in Paris. After ...more
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Money is the universal, self-constituted value of all things. Hence it has robbed the whole world... of its proper value. Money is the alienated essence of man's labour and life, and this alien essence dominates him as he worships it.”
—
18 likes
“Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist. Money degrades all the gods of man – and turns them into commodities. Money is the universal self-established value of all things. It has, therefore, robbed the whole world – both the world of men and nature – of its specific value. Money is the estranged essence of man’s work and man’s existence, and this alien essence dominates him, and he worships it.”
—
2 likes
More quotes…