I was reading Karl Marx's page on the wikipedia, just to get a basic biography on him because I do not know much about his personal life. But it says that many people have accused him of being a self-loathing Jew, that he was embarassed of his Jewish heritage because he hated Capitalism so much and seen the Jews (in general) as being the embodiment of Capitalist greed. Which would make sense I guess, what is the #1 stereotype of the Jew? Greedy and materialistic. What is the occupation of most Jews? Merchants, jewelers and bankers. So it would make sense that if he truly hated Capitalist greed he may be embarassed of his Ashkenazi ethnicity. I wonder if there is any truth to these claims. I think that would be sort of ironic if Marx really was a self-loathing Jew.        Marx and antisemitism    Some commentators, like  Bernard Lewis ,  Edward H. Flannery  and  Hyam Maccoby , have seen Marx's  On The Jewish Question  as an  antisemitic  work, and identify antisemitic epithets in his published and private writings. [38] [39]  According to them, Marx regarded Jews as the embodiment of capitalism and the creators of its evils. [40]  In their view, Marx's equation of Judaism with capitalism, together with his pronouncements on Jews, strongly influenced socialist movements and shaped their attitudes and policies toward the Jews. In these scholars' opinions, Marx's 'On the Jewish Question' influenced  National Socialist , as well as Soviet and Arab anti-Semites. [41] [42] [43]   Hyam Maccoby  has suggested that Marx was  embarrassed by his Jewish background . [44]  The above authors often quote the following excerpt from  On The Jewish Question  to support their arguments:  “What is the secular basis of Judaism? Practical need, selfishness. What is the secular cult of the Jew? Haggling. What is his secular god? Money. Well then, an emancipation from haggling and money, from practical, real Judaism would be the self emancipation of our age. [45]     Hyam Maccoby  has argued that On the Jewish Question is an example of what he considers to be Marx' early  anti-Semitism . According to Maccoby, Marx argues in the essay that the modern commercialized world is the triumph of Judaism, a pseudo-religion whose god is money. Maccoby has suggested that Marx was embarrassed by his Jewish background and used the Jews as a yardstick of evil. Maccoby writes that in later years, Marx limited what he considers to be antipathy towards Jews to private letters and conversations because of strong public identification with anti-Semitism by his political enemies both on the left ( Pierre-Joseph Proudhon  and  Mikhail Bakunin ) and on the right (aristocracy and the Church). [13]   Bernard Lewis  has described On the Jewish Question as one of the classics of anti-Semitic propaganda. [14]  According to several scholars, for Marx Jews were the embodiment of capitalism and the representation of all its evils. [15] 