ABSTRACT
Several years ago Rodney Needham, reviewing a book on Durkheim, wrote: ‘The suggestion has even been made by a Jewish scholar (a historian and social anthropologist) that there is something about those characteristic virtues and viewpoints [of Durkheim] which cannot well be understood by gentile readers’ (1978). This raises the age-old question of whether a gentile can correctly interpret Judaistic thought or understand Judaism at any historical period. And it applies equally to an examination of Durkheim's thought itself. A prima facie, a wise policy in dealing with hermeneutical issues, is to go, at least initially, to those who have worked directly with them as part of their inherited culture.
