Jenny von Westphalen
 
Johanna "Jenny" von Westphalen (born 12 February 1814, died 2 December 1881) was the wife of Karl Marx, and the daughter of Johann Ludwig, Baron von Westphalen, a professor at Friedrich-Wilhelms-University in Berlin.
 
Jenny von Westphalen was not only a beautiful, but also an educated young woman. She and Karl Marx dated for seven years and wrote to each other letters when apart. To fully appreciate her letter to Karl Marx excerpted below, brush-up on your Latin and Virgil's dactylic hexameters to listen to the sounds of
 
Id clamor et agmine facto
Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum...
 
 

Jenny von Westphalen. Enhanced reality portrait.

Trier, August 10, 1841

My dear teddy-bear, how glad I am that you are happy, and that my letter made you cheerful, and that you are longing for me, and that you are living in wallpapered rooms and that there are Hegel clubs there, and that you have been dreaming, and that, in short, you are mine. But for all that there is one thing I miss: you could have praised me a little for my Greek, and you could have devoted a little laudatory article to my erudition so, alas, I must be modest and rest on my own laurels. Farewell, one and only beloved. I cannot write any more, or my head will be all in a whirl, and quadrupedante putrem sonitu, etc.

Adieu, adieu, my sweetheart.
Jenny

Jenny and Karl were married in 1843 and had three daughters, Eleanor, Jenny, and Laura. Jenny and Karl worked together; he wrote and she edited books that helped, for a century, to build a better world.  Jenny later wrote that

At he core of philosophy of Karl Marx is his critique of religion with its roots in his critique of Judaism. His critique of capitalism is based on these foundations and the Soviet Union, where his ideas were realized, was one of few countries where Jews did not succeed in dominating the society and its economy. With the hindsight of events that transpired after the fall of the Soviet Union, it appears that the most profound analysis of Karl Marx was not his economic analysis, but his analysis of religion. Rooted in the philosophy of the Enlightenment with Voltaire warning that the particularistic religious precepts may "some day become deadly to the human race" Karl Marx, with astounding prescience, foresees the rise of Judeo-Protestantism that promotes egoism wrapped in religion.

Marx critique of Judaism was summarized in his Zur Judenfrage, published in 1844 in the Deutsch-Franzosische Jarbucher. His arguments are based on the thesis that the core of Judaism is extreme partiality, instrumental in the accumulation of wealth. Marx observes that in North America, Jews exercise immense power and the domination of Judaism over the Christian world is  fait accompli.

Marx maintains that the laws of the Jews are a religious caricature of groundless morality with Talmud describing the relation of the world of self-interest to the laws governing the world, the chief art of which consists in the cunning circumvention of these laws.

As Christianity sprang from Judaism and has merged again in Judaism, this blend of religions alienated people from their inner selves, transforming the Christian egoism of heavenly bliss into the corporal egoism of the Jews, their spiritual needs into secular needs, and their subjectivism into self-interest. Marx concludes that the precepts of Pentateuch and Talmud corrupt not only Jews, but the whole society.

The ideals of Karl and Jenny were not fully appreciated until now, when many begin to see what could have been. There never was a more propitious time to start reading Karl and Jenny's books. Start now and start at the beginning.

References

Marx, K. (1844) Zur Judenfrage. Deutsch-Franzosische Jarbucher (February, 1884)
Tucker, R. C. (2000) Philosophy and Myth in Karl Marx. Transaction Publishers