Considered the father of modern Sociology. David Emile Durkheim was born to Melanie and Moïse Durkheim on April 15, 1858 in Epinal, the capital town of the department of Vosges, in Lorraine. Emile's father, grandfather and great grandfather had all been rabbis and he was somewhat destined to become a rabbi himself. Part of his formal education even took place in a rabbincal school. In reality, it didn't take long for him to break from Judaism, a philisophical event that took place around the same time he arrived in Paris, once again blurring the lines between Judaism as a race and Judaism as a religion.

His four most famous works were:
The Division of Labor in Society (1893)
The Rules of Sociological Method (1895)
Suicide (1897)
The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1912)