ABSTRACT
The western Enlightenment intended to regenerate the Jews by liberating them from superstition and despotism. The psychological interpretation of Karl Marx as a neophyte must, however, explain how radical and consistent secularism could also generate Jewish self-hatred. Marx’s essay on the Jews was clearly framed as a polemic against Bruno Bauer, his left-wing Hegelian mentor – a Protestant theologian turned atheist and free-thinker. In secular America, Marx found the evidence he had been looking for to confound Bauer’s thesis that Jewish emancipation implied the victory of atheism. Marx’s references to America intended to show that Judaism would survive and even flourish under conditions of political emancipation and the separation of church and state. Jewish characteristics were as offensive to the Gentiles as before, but the burden of responsibility was placed on the Jews to change themselves.
