Author’s Note: I make the logical argument (below) that Marx was NOT an ‘ethnic’ Jew for a number of reasons premised upon the procedure of (material) evidence gathering and ‘fact’ assessment. Certainly, Marx was NOT a ‘cultural’ Jew – as he was NOT an ‘Orthodox’ Jew – and NEITHER was he a ‘Zionist’. I would argue that Marx was NOT even a ‘SECULAR’ Jew. By way of contrast, I have been in a copious number of Christian Churches, Abbeys and Monasteries. I have also lived with ethnic Muslims and Hindus at different times in the UK. I have visited Sri Lanka and frequented Buddhist and Hindu Temples, and have spent time in Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey (studying Islam). This is as well as my time in Hong Kong and China, etc. I even studied Greek Orthodox Christianity in Greece – and visited the monks living on Mount Athos. At school in the UK we were all considered ‘Protestant’ regardless of our backgrounds and were compelled to attend the local Church once or twice a term! Furthermore, a certain percentage of my recent British and Irish ancestry are recorded as being both ‘Protestant’ and ‘Catholic’! As I am an ardent Maoist – what does all of the above mean?
As I live within the Chinese side of my family – we consider ourselves nominal ‘Buddhists’ providing there is no funny business regarding superstition! The point is that my academic field of expertise involves the ‘objective’ study of a) religious tradition (practice) and b) religious thinking (theory). I understand and respect these belief systems – but ‘understanding’ should NOT be conflated with a one-sided ‘adherence’. Despite this, the far-right could accuse me of being a devotee of any number of religions – and could provide fairly sound material evidence to support this assumption – and yet the assumption would be groundless! I have a far greater (and ‘provable’) association with ‘religion’ than Karl Marx ever had – and yet he is often accused of a) being a ‘Jew’ and b) of constructing the authority structure of the interior of the synagogue (and the corresponding outer structures of ‘Jewish’ cultural life) in the ‘secular’ context of a ‘Socialist’ or ‘Communist’ ideology! Scientific Socialism, therefore, is nothing more original than a ‘Secular’ form of Judaism – according to the fascists!
On the other hand, Marx still had ‘Jewish’ relatives and must have been made aware of the ethnic (birth) identity of his father during his youth. Why were there these ‘different’ people living ‘further away’ from his non-Jewish family – within which he was born? Surely, although avoiding the trap of a conventional Jewish upbringing – Marx must have been aware of how Jewish people lived their lives and conducted their daily business. At least in this respect, Karl Marx possessed an insight into the Jewish community (without being directly subject to it) that most non-Jewish people would ever possess. In my life, I have met about five people of Jewish origin – two Rabbis and three civilians – all of whom were completely indifferent to my presence once they realised I was not Jewish! Marx, at least, would have got one step further into the Jewish community than I managed! In this sense, Marx could be described as a ‘peripheral’ Jew – an accolade which would have granted him the ability to ‘observe’ Jewish culture and report upon it in an ‘objective’ manner. This, I believe, is the basis for his (1844) text entitled ‘On the Jewish Question‘ – but I will write about this shortly. Needless to say, Marx is attacked by Zionists (which accuse him of rampaging ‘anti-Semitism’) just as much as he is lambasted by the far-right (for surreptitiously inflicting Jewish theology upon an unsuspecting humanity) – after-all – both entities are deficient ‘fascist’ constructs! ACW (2.7.2023)
Members of the far-right live in a world comprised of a tightly (self-reinforcing) shared delusion. It is a cerebral theory internally constructed and designed to view (and interpret) the physical world in a certain (intolerant) manner. The supposed purity of ‘Whiteness’ is juxtaposed with the ‘darkness’ of an ever threatening and encroaching world! This is the essence of the good verses evil dichotomy of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Indeed, contemporary far-right ideology does not deviate from this foundation. Fascism is ‘theology’ plus skin ‘colour’ – although those who refer to themselves as ‘White’ are even dishonest about this questionable fact – as such people are actually ‘pink’ (which is ironically the chosen colour of Homosexuality). If this thought community cannot even be honest about its own skin colour – what other basic facts does it get wrong?
Karl Marx, or so the fascists like to tell us, was a ‘Jew’ – as if the unquestioned recognition of this fact (if it were true) explains everything that has ever happened in the existence of the world! I state that this assertion is NOT true and I shall explain why I think this is the case using logical deduction. It is true that the father of Karl Marx was born an ethnic Jew. He was born of a Jewish mother and a Jewish father, was circumcised and was acculturated within a Jewish Community. However, as he wanted to marry a Christian (non-Jewish) woman (a ‘goyam’) – he had to suffer the Jewish equivalent of the punishment of ‘excommunication’ – and was forced to leave the Jewish Community forever. This he did – converting to Protestant Christianity in the process.
Karl Marx was born to a Protestant Christian mother and father. He had a secular upbringing with only a nodding acquaintance with Church going and Christian worship, etc. His was a modern upbringing free of any and all Jewish influence in his everyday life with perhaps only a vague peripheral experience through occasionally interacting with his Jewish relatives. As his mother was a non-Jew – according to Jewish tradition – Karl Marx was NOT a Jew. His mother was the daughter of a Prussian (Christian) aristocrat. Marx would have experienced Judaism very much in the same objective manner that most non-Jews do – through the pages of academic books and perhaps the odd site-seeing tour. Indeed, Marx even penned an article addressing the so-called ‘Jewish Question’ – where he treats the presence (and activities) of Jews with an alarming frankness. This has led a number of commentators to treat Marx in something of a unique way, as he is simultaneously accused of being a Jew on the one-hand, and acting in an anti-Semitic (Secular) manner on the other!
The shoehorning of Marx into Judaism is important for the average far-right fascist as the theory of Scientific Socialism is said to reflect a New World Order modelled on Marx’s experience of the internal workings of a synagogue. The only problem is that Marx never visited a synagogue or participated in any Jewish act of worship. If that was not enough – his co-conspirator – the marauding Friedrich Engels, was certainly NOT a Jew (historically or otherwise)! Engels was well educated like Marx, and was well travelled and experienced, but again he probably possessed no more direct experience of Judaism than Marx did! Finally, it is interesting that the fascists who concoct the myth of Communism being a Jewish plot – never associate Hitler’s experience of sitting in Christian Churches as being an influence on the (staunch) hierarchical authority structures he preferred! As this could easily be construed as being in someway reflective of the machinations of the Vatican regulated by the ‘no nonsense’ behaviour of its Priests on Earth (God’s Stormtroopers)!
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 