Research Associates

Erin Corber is a historian of Modern Jewry and Modern Europe. She earned her PhD in History and Jewish Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, in 2013. She was Visiting Assistant Professor of European History at the University of Maine, and in 2017-18 held the inaugural Visiting Chair of Jewish Studies at Dalhousie University. Erin has also held postdoctoral research fellowships at the United States Holocaust memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and New Europe College in Bucharest, Romania. Since 2018, Erin is Career Educator and Advisor for graduate students and postdocs at McGill University.

Erin has published on a variety of topics related to French Jewish and European Jewish history in the interwar era in both North America and Europe. Her most recent work focuses on antisemistism and Jewish life in the Franco-German frontier region of Alsace and Lorraine during the 1930s.

In her public historical practice, Erin contributes to museum guide training for local museums, gives public and invited class lectures on race and racism, human rights, and the history of the Holocaust, and participates on consulting projects related to history education tools and cultural production.

Dr. Sharon Gubbay Helfer is an oral historian and a scholar-practitioner of difficult dialogues. She recently completed an FQRSC-funded postdoctoral research project on pioneers of Jewish-Christian dialogue in Québec with the Chair in Islam, Globalization and Pluralism at the Université de Montréal, where she is also a lecturer. As Research Associate with the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia, she worked on the project "Life Stories of Montrealers Displaced by War, Genocide, and other Human Rights Violations" and created a pilot archive and associated online exhibit of Palestinian Canadian Life Stories, the latter as a fellow of Concordia's Centre for Ethnographic Research and Exhibition in the Aftermath of Violence (CEREV). Dr. Gubbay Helfer contributed as oral historian to the Small Jewish Communities of Ontario project of the Ontario Jewish Archives. As ethnographer, she created studies of the communities at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal and the Saint Andrew and Saint Paul Church for Laval University’s Projet d’inventaire du patrimoine immatériel religieux du Québec. Her current research includes creating a pilot archive of Jewish-Israeli-Canadian Life Stories and writing a series of articles about interreligious and intercultural dialogue.

Sharon Gubbay Helfer est historienne orale et chercheure-praticienne de dialogues difficiles. Parmi ses réalisation récentes, elle compte un projet de recherche postdoctoral subventionné par le FQRSC sur les pionniers du dialogue judéo-chrétien au Québec, projet qu’elle a réalisé auprès de la Chaire en Islam, globalisation et pluralisme à l’Université de Montréal, où elle est également chargée de cours. Elle fut impliquée comme affiliée au Centre d’histoire orale et de récits numérisés à Concordia, où elle a œuvré au projet Histoires de vie des Montréalais déplacés par la guerre, le génocide et autres violations des droits de la personne et où elle a crée un projet pilote d’histoires de vie de palestiniens canadiens. En collaboration avec les participants à ce dernier, et en tant qu’affiliée au Centre CEREV elle a crée une exposition en ligne. En tant qu’historienne orale, Sharon Gubbay Helfer a contribué au projet sur les petites communautés juives d’Ontario pour les archives juives d’Ontario. Comme enthnographe, elle a réalisé des études de la synagogue espagnole et portugaise à Montréal ainsi que de l’église Saint Andrew and Saint Paul pour le Projet d’inventaire du patrimoine immatériel religieux du Québec à l’université Laval. Ses recherches en cours incluent la création d’un projet pilote d'histoires de vie d'israéliens-juifs-canadiens et la rédaction d’une série d’articles sur le dialogue interreligieux et interculturel.

A scholar of Orthodox Judaism, Steven Lapidus received his doctorate from Concordia University where he has taught for the last several years. His dissertation, Orthodoxy in Transition: The Vaad Ha'ir of Montreal, examined the development of the Rabbinical Council of Montreal in the mid-twentieth century. Other publications include "'Maggid of Montreal': Rabbi Hirsch Cohen on the Dilemmas of the Canadian Rabbi", "Love Thy Neighbour: Hasidic Social Relations in Quebec," and "North American Hasidim: Between Modernity and the Old World." A former co-curator of the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre, Steven has taught in various fields, including Canadian Jewish history, the Jewish Community Council of Montreal, and the intersection of religion and culture. His current book projects include a memoir about life in a Ukrainian shtetl in the pre-World War I era and another on Hasidism in Quebec.

Dr. Sonia Sarah Lipsyc is the Director of the ALEPH Institute of Contemporary Jewish Studies at the CSUQ since its inception in 2009. This centre is primarily centred on an adult audience. It offers classes, conferences and colloquium in French focussing on central Jewish texts (the Torah, Talmud, and Kabbalah) and on issues found within contemporary Judaism. A Doctor in Sociology, Sonia Sarah Lipsyc has worked for years on themes focussing on gender within Judaism, the Jewish woman, and the analysis of Jewish Law (halakha) on questions focussing on Jewish law. She edited the book entitled Femmes et Judaismes aujourd’hui (2008) in which she authored an essay entitled “L’accès des femmes au Talmud: le point de vue traditionnel en question” and co-authored with Janine Elkouby, Quand les femmes lisent la Bible, Pardes, n.43, In. Press, 2007. 

Her area of research focuses on the interactions of secular and religious Jews living together in Israel and in the Diaspora. She has focussed exclusively on this issue in Québec with reference to the Sociology of Contemporary Judaism and in Jewish Law. In response to this, she has created the site: Judaismes et Questions de société to serve as a resource in developing these important subjects of (conversion, religious pluralism, questions focussing on gender, etc.). For a complete list of Dr. Lipsyc’s publications, visit her website: soniasarahlipsyc.com.

Recent English publications

• “The changing religious life of Montreal’s Sephardic community,” LVS, Montreal,June 2011, p. 34-36 (traduction Sharon Gubbay Helfer).
• “Is Feminism Compatible with Judaism?” Article originally published for International Women’s Day, March 8, in “Paroles de femmes,” Cahiers Bernard Lazare, March 2012 edition #336, (traduction Sophie Pascal).

A playwright, she also specializes of Jewish theatre. She has authored an iconoclastic piece entitled Salomon Mikhoëls ou le testament d’un acteur juif, Ed du Cerf, Paris, 2002 that contains both a theatre production and two essays focussing on the history of Jewish theatre. She is also the author of multiple theatre productions such as Eve des limbes revenue ou l’interview exclusive de la première femme ou presque de l’humanité performed on the air in 2011 in France on its national radio program France Culture and produced on stage in 2012 at Brandeis University in Boston, MA. She produced the theatre production Sauver un être, sauver un monde based on the critically acclaimed novel Hitler et la fillette, Flammarion Québec, 2010 by the young Quebecoise author, Catherine Shvetz, which was played throughout many secondary schools in the Montreal area in 2012.

In 2011, Dr. Sonia Sarah Lipsyc was awarded the Award of Excellence in Jewish Education from the Samuel and Brenda Gewurtz Foundation from BJEC (Bronfman Jewish Education Centre).

Dr. Sonia Sarah Lipsyc est directrice de ALEPH-le Centre d’Etudes Juives Contemporaines de la Communauté Sépharade Unifiée du Québec (CSUQ) depuis sa création en 2009. Ce centre para académique s’adresse aux adultes. Il propose, en français, des cours, conférences, colloques centrés sur l’étude des textes traditionnels (Torah, Talmud, Kabbale) et les problématiques du judaïsme contemporain. Docteur en Sociologie, Sonia Sarah Lipsyc a travaillé durant des années sur les thèmes du genre dans le judaïsme, le féminisme juif et l’analyse de la loi juive ("halakha") sur les questions de femmes. Elle a dirigé la publication Femmes et Judaismes aujourd’hui, édition In Press, 2008 dans laquelle elle a publié un essai sur "L’accès des femmes au Talmud : le point de vue traditionnel en question" et avec Janine Elkouby, Quand les femmes lisent la Bible, Pardès no 43, In Press, 2007.

Son champ de recherches actuel porte sur "le vivre ensemble entre laïques et religieux en Israël et en Diaspora." Elle s’attachera notamment à l’observation de cette problématique au Québec en se référant à la sociologie du judaïsme contemporain et de la loi juive. Elle a créé à ce sujet le site Judaismes et Questions de société comme un site de ressources en développement sur ces diverses thématiques (conversion, pluralisme religieux, questions de genre, etc.). Pour la liste de ses publications, visitez son site web: soniasarahlipsyc.com.

Publications récentes en anglais

• “The changing religious life of Montreal’s Sephardic community,” LVS, Montreal,June 2011, p. 34-36 (traduction Sharon Gubbay Helfer).
• “Is Feminism Compatible with Judaism?” Article originally published for International Women’s Day, March 8, in “Paroles de femmes,” Cahiers Bernard Lazare, March 2012 edition #336, (traduction Sophie Pascal).

Dramaturge, elle est également spécialiste du théâtre juif. Elle a écrit un livre iconoclaste "Salomon Mikhoëls ou le testament d’un acteur juif," Ed du Cerf, Paris, 2002 qui comporte à la fois une pièce de théâtre et deux essais sur l’histoire du théâtre juif. Auteure de pièces de théâtre ses dernières créations sont "Eve des limbes revenue ou l’interview exclusive de la première femme ou presque de l’humanité" mise en ondes en 2011 sur la radio nationale France Culture, et jouée en anglais en 2012 à Brandeis. Elle a mis en scène à partir du livre de la jeune juive québécoise Catherine Shvets (Hitler et la fillette,Flammarion Québec, 2010) le spectacle "Sauver un être, sauver un monde"joué dans de nombreux classes secondaires à Montréal (2012).

Sonia Sarah Lipsyc a reçu en 2011, le Prix d’excellence en éducation juive de la Fondation Samuel et Brenda Gewurz de la BJEC (Bronfman Jewish Education Center).

Judith Cohen is an ethnomusicologist, medievalist and singer. Her Ph.D. dissertation (Université de Montréal, Musicologie, 1989) focused on music in Canadian Sephardic communities, and her M.A. (Université de Montréal, Sciences médiévales, 1980) on women musicians in the three monotheistic religions of medieval Iberia. Since the 1990s, her research and publications have also focused on music and identity in Spain's "three cultures" festivals, and on the role of music in the Crypto-Jewish communities of rural Portugal. The Spain Consultant for the Alan Lomax Collection since 2000, Dr Cohen has also continued her fieldwork in Sephardic and non-Jewish communities in Morocco, Turkey, Greece and the Balkans, and is well-known as a singer and workshop leader in these and related music traditions, including pan-European balladry and shared themes in Yiddish and Sephardic songs. Born and raised in Montreal, she has taught at York University since the early 1990s, and is a founding member of Montreal performance ensembles Gerineldo (Moroccan Sephardic music) and Sanz Cuer (a women's ensemble specializing in medieval music).