MARX AND THE JEWISH QUESTION
Nathan Weinstock
From the famous Nathan Weinstock text "History of Zionism Ed.Massari-2006", then denied by the author, we publish these reflections on the rate of Marx concerning the Jewish question .
When the young Marx wrote "The Jewish Question" ( Zur Iudenfrage ) in 1844, his thinking is still in training. The founder of scientific socialism, not yet emancipated spirit. In his Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts written in the same year, Marx discovers that the alienation of wage labor is the cornerstone of capitalist society, the foundations of communism.
should be noted that Marx did not study directly and personally to the Jewish question. His dissertation is presented as a critique of idealism Bruno Bauer who had devoted two studies to this problem in the 'Allgemeine Zeitung-Liberatur.
Marx's analysis is therefore based on data from second-hand and this is felt by the rest of the abstract nature of his study. He knew without a doubt the Jewish bourgeoisie "assimilation" of Germany, which was its original environment, but completely ignored the plight of the Jewish masses in Eastern Europe. It could not, of course, predict the imperialist stage of decadent capitalism and its impact on the Jewish problem.
That's not a case of F. Engels, who, half a century later, when anti-Semitism will become one of the themes favorite of the European right -, will highlight the importance and satisfaction with the combativeness of the Jewish proletariat of England, U.S. and Thessaloniki. He insists, moreover, in this same essay of 1890-and the same will-Lenin on the contribution of Jews to the labor movement. (1)
These specifications define the limits and weaknesses of the Marxian attempt. The Jewish question is based, in fact, a highly debatable premise that Marx borrowed from Hegel and Feuerbach young people in particular: that the statement that Judaism is the religion of selfishness, trade and money In other words, the spirit of capitalism.
This view is generally accepted by the Left Hegelians. Even Moses Hess, the forerunner of Zionism, is no exception. According to his biographer, he would moreover "clearly inspired by" the essay by Marx. In his study of money ( Ueber das Geldwesen ), written in 1844 for "Franco-German Annals," in which Marx publishes The Jewish Question , Hess identifies the Jewish world with the traders and states that the historical task of the Jews was to have released in the natural history of the world social animal ( sozialen Tierwelt ) the animal inherent in the human prey. (2)
E 'beyond doubt that the economic role of Jews has deeply marked their religious thought. The evolution of wear on the rabbinic doctrine gives us an excellent demonstration. So, essentially agrarian society of the Jews, and even during the classical antiquity, lending at interest was forbidden to testify as the Pentateuch and Mishna (oral comments of the Bible). However, the doctrine will be considerably more flexible in the teaching of Maimonides (1135-1204) "In fact, this relaxation had become necessary because at that time Jews no longer lived in compact agricultural colonies such as those of Palestine and the times of Babylon Talmud and Mishna , but were forced to become merchants, brokers and money lenders, "it said in Jewish Encyclopedia . (3) The legality of the loan interest is allowed in Shulkhan Arukh (the Coffee served , compendium of doctrine) by Joseph Caro (1488-1575). (4) could easily cite many other examples that illustrate the parallels between social change and its adaptation Jewish doctrine. But the simplistic assumptions
Feuerbachians, that Judaism is not merely the expression of the spirit of profit, completely ignores the rivalry of schools as part of Judaism since the beginning of our era: opposition which undoubtedly reflect the clash of antagonistic social classes (Sadducees, Pharisees, Zealots, etc.).. It is no longer able to grasp the extraordinary similarity between the medieval Jewish theology and other similar current Christian and Muslim. We mention, by way of example, the heretical Jewish sect of Karaites the appearance of which is contemporary to that of the movement of Muslim Mu'tazilite to the point that certain writings of the former may be confused with the works of the latter. (5) And 'course in the contradictions of Arab society of the Middle Ages, it is necessary to check the main source of ideological conflict that will lead to the Karaite schism. A historian so little inclined to the materialistic interpretation as Cecil Roth, however, this event connects directly to the "atmosphere of political malaise (...) favorable to religious conflicts" that reigned in the caliphate of Baghdad. The same author stresses the fact that the Karaite heresy members are recruited tens of thousands "of Jews more uneducated" probabilmente cioè nelle classi inferiori. (6) A quel tempo in Egitto i caraiti formano lo strato più miserabile della comunità ebraica.
Aggiungiamo che, nelle opere della maturità, Marx ha espressamente combattuto la teoria dell’ideologia come espressione immediata della struttura e ha insistito sul carattere di mediazione e complesso della sovrastruttura. (7)
Ci sembra più giusto considerare la religione ebraica come l’espressione della coscienza globale degli ebrei nel loro specifico quadro sociale e più precisamente della loro condizione in seno a questa società. I movimenti messianici, per esempio, esprimono in maniera acuta la disperazione di una comunità di mercanti e di artigiani oppressa, condannata dall’emergere di una borghesia autoctona che ne distrugge la ragion d’essere. Una concezione che proprio Marx ha mirabilmente sviluppato nella sua Critica alla filosofia del diritto di Hegel : “La miseria religiosa esprime tutta la miseria reale quanto la protesta contro la miseria reale. La religione è il gemito dell’oppresso, il sentimento di un mondo senza cuore, e insieme lo spirito di una condizione senza spiritualità. Essa è l’oppio del popolo”. (8)
Marx stresses once the limits of that political emancipation is not human emancipation, "... the State can be a free State without that man is a free man . (9) liberties established by the State do not release the man. The criticism of political emancipation thus leads to the observation that the Jewish question resolves "In general question of the time." (10)
back on Judaism, continues: "... the ability to emancipate the Jew of today is the relationship of Judaism to the emancipation of the world today. This report is necessarily the special position of Judaism nell'asservito world today. " (11)
Thus, "the chimerical nationality of the Jew is the nationality of the trader, in general, the man of money" (12). Now for Marx, Judaism is the ideological expression of social-economic function specification of the Jews (trade, money). It 'clear that until now, "Jews have emancipated themselves insofar as Christians have become Jews" within that general alienation of the capitalist. The true human emancipation requires the removal of this alienation: "The emancipation of the Jews in its ultimate meaning is the emancipation of society from Judaism." (13) In Judaism is understood in the context of Hegelian ideology of practical need, namely, the young Marx, capitalism. In other words, Marx was a brilliant theoretical analysis demonstrated that the emancipation of the Jews is linked to broader social problem of human emancipation.
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NOTES
(1) Letter of April 19, 1890 corresponding to a stranger in K. Marx and F. Engels, Selested Correspondance 1846-1895, with Commentary and Notes , London, 1943, p.
471 (2) E. SILBERNER, Moses Hess. Geischichte seines Lebens , Leiden, 1966, pp.181 and 192. See A. MANOR, The national question , Tel Aviv, nd, p.75.
(3) The Jewish Encyclopedia, Ktav Publishing House, New York, nd, under "Usury"
(4) Ibid.
(5) I. Husik, A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy , New York, 1959, pp. XXIII-XXIV.
(6) C. ROTH, Histoire du peuple juif , 2nd ed., Paris, 1956, pp.
179-180 (7) A. Gramsci, Historical materialism and the philosophy of Benedetto Croce, (Works of Antonio Gramsci , 2) 6 th edition, Einaudi, Torino, 1955, pp. 47-49 ( Concept of 'ideology "p. 230 (in Benedetto Croce and historical materialism ).
(8) K: MARX, to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right in K.MARX-F.ENGELS, Works, 2nd ed., Editori Riuniti, Rome, 1969, p. 58.
(9) K. MARX, The Jewish Question, in K. MARX-F.ENGELS, Works ..., p.
82 (10) Ibid, p. 79.
(11) Ibid, p. 103.
(12) Ivi , p. 107.
(13) Ivi . P.104.
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