Bruno Bauer. Die Judenfrage.

“While Bauer regarded emancipation from the thraldom of medievalism as the object of modern civilization, he had no sympathy whatsoever with the Jews' struggle for political, social and religious emancipation. At a time when the Jews of Germany strove hard to obtain their long-withheld political freedom and equality, and when many, in order to assert their full claim to citizenship, went so far as to urge the rejection of every vestige of Orientalism from their religious life, Bauer published "Die Judenfrage," in which he finds the continual oppression of the Jews by the Christian state perfectly justified. He declares that by their loyalty to their own history they stand in opposition to the powers that be, because religion and race force them to live in perpetual separation from the rest of mankind, and that the fact of their being Jews prevents them from being perfect men. Judaism, whether it be based on the Mosaic or the Talmudic law, has, in Bauer's opinion, no claim to a share in the world's progress and freedom. He ridiculed the Reform movement and denied them the very right of modernization. Thus, in his opinion, there is absolutely no salvation for the Jew, not even if he should join the Christian majority.” (JE). Bauer's attack on the Jews evoked replies from many, including Gabriel Riesser, Samuel Hirsch, Holdheim, Geiger and most significantly, Karl Marx in his "Zur Judenfrage" (1843).