On the Jewish Question

"On the Jewish Question" is a response by Karl Marx to then-current debates over the Jewish question. Marx wrote the piece in 1843, and it was first published in Paris in 1844 under the German title "Zur Judenfrage" in the Deutsch–Französische Jahrbücher.

The essay criticizes two studies^[1]^[2] by Marx's fellow Young Hegelian, Bruno Bauer, on the attempt by Jews to achieve political emancipation in Prussia. Bauer argued that Jews could achieve political emancipation only by relinquishing their particular religious consciousness since political emancipation requires a secular state; Bauer assumes that there is not any "space" remaining for social identities such as religion. According to Bauer, such religious demands are incompatible with the idea of the "Rights of Man". True political emancipation, for Bauer, requires the abolition of religion.

Marx uses Bauer's essay as an opportunity for presenting his own analysis of liberal rights, arguing that Bauer is mistaken in his assumption that in a "secular state", religion will no longer play a prominent role in social life. Marx gives the pervasiveness of religion in the United States as an example, which, unlike Prussia, had no state religion. In Marx's analysis, the "secular state" is not opposed to religion, but rather actually presupposes it. The removal of religious or property qualifications for citizens does not mean the abolition of religion or property, but only introduces a way of regarding individuals in abstraction from them.^[3]

Marx then moves beyond the question of religious freedom to his real concern with Bauer's analysis of "political emancipation". Marx concludes that while individuals can be "spiritually" and "politically" free in a secular state, they can still be bound to material constraints on freedom by economic inequality, an assumption that would later form the basis of his critiques of capitalism.

A number of scholars and commentators regard "On the Jewish Question", and in particular its second section, which addresses Bauer's work "The Capacity of Present-day Jews and Christians to Become Free", as antisemitic,^[4] although others do not.^[5]^[6]

^ Bruno Bauer, Die Judenfrage (The Jewish Question), Braunschweig 1843
^ Bruno Bauer: "Die Fähigkeit der heutigen Juden und Christen, frei zu werden" ("The Capacity of Present-day Jews and Christians to Become Free"), in: Einundzwanzig Bogen aus der Schweiz, edited by Georg Herwegh, Zürich and Winterthur, 1843, pp. 56–71.
^ Marx 1844: "[T]he political annulment of private property not only fails to abolish private property but even presupposes it. The state abolishes, in its own way, distinctions of birth, social rank, education, occupation, when it declares that birth, social rank, education, occupation, are non-political distinctions, when it proclaims, without regard to these distinctions, that every member of the nation is an equal participant in national sovereignty, when it treats all elements of the real life of the nation from the standpoint of the state. Nevertheless, the state allows private property, education, occupation, to act in their way – i.e., as private property, as education, as occupation, and to exert the influence of their special nature. Far from abolishing these real distinctions, the state only exists on the presupposition of their existence; it feels itself to be a political state and asserts its universality only in opposition to these elements of its being."
^ Johnson, Paul (April 1, 1984). "Marxism vs. the Jews". Commentary Magazine.
^ Cite error: The named reference McLellan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Brown, Wendy (1995). "Rights and Identity in Late Modernity: Revisiting the 'Jewish Question'". In Sarat, Austin; Kearns, Thomas (eds.). Identities, Politics, and Rights. University of Michigan Press. pp. 85–130.

[1] Bruno Bauer, Die Judenfrage (The Jewish Question), Braunschweig 1843

[2] Bruno Bauer: "Die Fähigkeit der heutigen Juden und Christen, frei zu werden" ("The Capacity of Present-day Jews and Christians to Become Free"), in: Einundzwanzig Bogen aus der Schweiz, edited by Georg Herwegh, Zürich and Winterthur, 1843, pp. 56–71.

[3] Marx 1844: "[T]he political annulment of private property not only fails to abolish private property but even presupposes it. The state abolishes, in its own way, distinctions of birth, social rank, education, occupation, when it declares that birth, social rank, education, occupation, are non-political distinctions, when it proclaims, without regard to these distinctions, that every member of the nation is an equal participant in national sovereignty, when it treats all elements of the real life of the nation from the standpoint of the state. Nevertheless, the state allows private property, education, occupation, to act in their way – i.e., as private property, as education, as occupation, and to exert the influence of their special nature. Far from abolishing these real distinctions, the state only exists on the presupposition of their existence; it feels itself to be a political state and asserts its universality only in opposition to these elements of its being."

[P_Johnson_1984_Commentary_Mag-4] Johnson, Paul (April 1, 1984). "Marxism vs. the Jews". Commentary Magazine.

[McLellan-5] Cite error: The named reference McLellan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Brown-6] Brown, Wendy (1995). "Rights and Identity in Late Modernity: Revisiting the 'Jewish Question'". In Sarat, Austin; Kearns, Thomas (eds.). Identities, Politics, and Rights. University of Michigan Press. pp. 85–130.

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