[gobucks]

"Marx was not Jewish". That is kind of misleading, don't you think? Especially given the outlines of the argument of the posted article - a very thoughtful presentation on the origins of the current wave of European Antisemitism I might add.

I agree Marx was a protestant; it was his father who had him baptized as a protestant. Karl later went on to be confirmed as a protestant...and never received a traditional Jewish education of any kind.

However, to deny that Karl Marx was Jewish doesn't really tell the story, as I understand it. His father was a son of a rabbi - and the family was openly Jewish, until the Prussian laws appeared that prevented Jews from serving in any high professions. The Marx family rejected Judaism under duress (an irony given the Spanish connection in the current article).

Karl Marx's father original name was Hirschel ha-Levi Marx; this family line was descended from famous Talmudic scholars. This was true as well for Karl Marx's mother, Henrietta Pressborck. Karl Marx's dad, however, decided to deny this cultural legacy to Karl when he was very young. It was a kind of lie of fantastic proportions to put upon a little kid.

Thus, Karl Marx was raised within the echos of two lines of Talmudic imprint.

I don't think it's wise to downplay the impact of the choices of his Jewish parents on the formation of the communist ideology he set forth in Das Kapital. I don't think it's wise to downplay ANY of the ingredients of a stew of ideas that inspired the murder of tens of millions.


Communism is a kind of lie of fantastic proportions....

[rmlew]

I wrote that Marx was not Jewish as he was a childhood convert to Lutheranism.
It is a fact that Marx not only came from a Jewish family, but one of renowned scholars.
However, Hirschel Marx choose to convert for economic reasons. In so doing, he taught Karl that religion and heritage were unimportant and that economics were paramount.
Marx's anti-Semitism is due in large part to the conversion and the continuing dislocation from it.