Past Winners

Marilyn Bernard
Ph.D History, Concordia University

Marilyn Bernard is a PhD candidate, in the History Department. Her studies focus on relations between Jews and non-Jews in the province of Quebec. For her doctoral dissertation, she is exploring the issue of marriages between Catholic French Canadians, and Jewish English Canadians, using oral history methods.

Audrey Mallet
Ph.D History, Concordia University

In her Ph.D. dissertation, Audrey will study how the legacy of the Second World War in general and the Holocaust in particular has been ignored or partially (fully?) acknowledged in two European cities whose pasts are intrinsically linked to the Third Reich: Warsaw and Vichy. She will also investigate whether the memorial choices made by the two cities favored the development of anti-Semitic feelings among their inhabitants.

Daniel Hundert
Ph.D Religion, Concordia University

Daniel Hundert serves as a Rabbi at the Ghetto Shul, a downtown synagogue for young people. He recently completed his MA and will be beginning doctoral studies relating to the concept of the "spiritual quest" in Hasidism.

Minghui Pan
Ph.D Religion, Concordia University

Minghui Pan’s research area is the relationship of Jews in North America and China during the Second World War, especially focusing on the anti-Semitism and its roots in North America.

Maya Hajdu
M.A. Art History, Concordia University

Maya is studying graphic memoirs written and illustrated by Jewish artists, including Miriam Libicki, Bernice Eisenstein, and Miriam Katin. Through this unique contemporary art form, she will explore the representation of memory and how it shapes collective as well as individual identity.

Ryan Cronsberry
M.A History, Concordia University

Ryan is currently studying the role anti-Semitism played in the Allied decision to abandon the Jewish resistance during the Holocaust.

Minghui Pan
M.A. Judaic Studies, Concordia University

Minghui is studying the relations of Jews in North America and China during the Second World War, especially focusing on anti-Semitism and its roots in North America.

Esther Mayer
M.A. Judaic Studies, Concordia University

Esther is studying the roots of anti-Semitic violence.

Setarah Saeed
M.A. History and Philosophy of Religion, Concordia University

Setarah focuses on conflict resolution and religious reconciliation between Judaism and Islam.

Angelique Koumouzelis, Ph.D. Religion, Concordia University

Angelique is undertaking research on harlotry narratives in Biblical texts, both Jewish and Christian.

Marat Grebennikov
Humanities Doctoral Programme

Central to Marat’s research are varied and complex situations faced by the Jewish communities in the Caucasus.

Marylin Bernard, Ph.D. History, Concordia University

Marylin’s study focuses on mixed marriages between Jewish and French Canadians. She is also the interview coordinator for the Holocaust working group of the “Montreal Life Stories" project.”

Viola Fini
Ph.D. Religion, Concordia University

Viola studies the process of building the cultural identity among the Jewish community of Montreal.

Viola Fini
Ph.D. Religion, Concordia University

Viola’s research thesis is on the Jews of Montreal and the accommodement raisonnable. One aspect she will study is the perception and prejudices of people living in Montreal on Jews, and she will investigate the roots related to anti-Semitism.

David Oppenheim
M.A. History and Philosophy of Religion, Concordia University

David has taken courses on Women in Modern Jewish History, Concepts in the Historical Study of Judaism, Early Rabbinic Literature and Talmud.

Andrea Gondos, Ph.D. Religion, Concordia University

Andrea is working on her doctoral thesis investigating the Zohar.

Congratulations to our 2007-2008 fellowship winners

Lara Rabinovitch, Ph.D., History, and Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University. Research area is on East European Jewish migration by focusing on the immigration of Jews from Romania to North America.

Julie Miryam Spergel, Ph.D., English Philology, University of Regensburg, Germany. Dissertation title, “Canada’s ‘Second History’: The Fiction of Jewish Canadian Women Writers.”

Naïm Mahlab Fellowship

Jacqueline Sischy, M.A., Art History, Concordia University. Focus of study is on art and the Jewish Canadian experience.

Jamie Anne Read, M.A. History and Philosophy of Religion, Concordia University. Focus of study is in conflict resolution and religious reconciliation between Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities.

Romek Hornstein Memorial Award

Dana Lori Chalmers, M.A., Special Individualized Programme, Concordia  University. Research explores and evaluates the influence of both Theatre and ParaTheatre on The Holocaust.

Amit Yehudai, M.A., Philosophy, Concordia University. Study of Philosophy and Religion.

Wetstein Fellowship

Donna Goodman, Ph.D., Religion, Concordia University. Thesis is on the exploration of Canadian Jewish Women’s experience through the reading of cookbooks.

• Institute Fellowship
  Vienne Chan, Religion
• Naïm Mahlab Fellowship
  Steven MacPherson, History
• Romek Hornstein Memorial Award
  Bonnie Goodman, Religion
• Wetstein Fellowship
  Sandra Smele, Sociology and Anthropology

Congratulations to the recipients of the 2005-2006 Institute Fellowships and awards

The winners of the 2005-2006 Institute Fellowships are; Carolyn Shaffer (M.A.), Bonnie Goodman (M.A.) and JoAnne Stober (Ph.D.) The recipients of the Romek Hornstein Award are Andrea Gondos and Steven Lapidus. The Wetstein Award has been granted to Susan Landau Chark and the recipient of the Naim Mahlab Fellowship is Lauren Burger.

Institute Fellowships

• Jesse Radz , M.A., - $5,000
  
• Carolyn Shaffer, M.A., - $5,000
  
• Bonnie Goodman, M.A. - $5,000
  
• Suzan Searle, M.A.- $5,000
  
• Christine Poirier, M.A. - $2,000

Naim Mahlab Fellowship

• Samantha Kravitz, M.A. - $5,000

Romek Hornstein Memorial Award

• Andrea Gondos, M.A. - $3,125
  
• Gordon Aronoff, Ph.D. - $3,125

Wetstein Fellowship

• Steven Lapidus , Ph.D. - $1,250

Institute Fellowships

• Steven Lapidus, Ph.D., Religion - $7,500
  
• Suzan Searle, M.A., Religion - $5,000
  
• Barbara Weiser, M.A., Religion - $5,000

Naim Mahlab Fellowship

• Steven Lapidus, Ph.D., Religion - $5,000

Romek Hornstein Memorial Award

• Gordon Aronoff, Ph.D., Religion - $3,125
  
• Susan Landau-Chark, Ph.D., Religion - $3,125

Wetstein Fellowship

• Carolyn Shaffer, M.A., Religion - $1,250

Institute Fellowships

• Esther Carmel-Hakim - $1,500
  
• Dana Herman - $4,000
  
• Steven Lapidus - $7,500

Romek Hornstein Memorial Award

• Dan Bernard
  
• Lois Whitmore

Wetstein Fellowship

• Suzanne Rackover

Institute Fellowships

• Nicolas Gauvin, Ph.D., History
  
• Donna Goodman, M.A., Religion
  
• Susan Landau-Chark, Ph.D., Religion
  
• Alexandra Zielinski, M.A., Communications

Romek Hornstein Memorial Award

• Vladimir Krassov, M.A., Religion
  
• Mayjee Philip, Ph.D., Religion

Institute Fellowships

• Susan Landau-Chark, Ph.D., Religion
• Eve Lerner, M.A. History
• Nathalie Pilon, M.A., Religion

Institute Fellowships

• Marlene Bonneau, Ph.D, Religion (Renewal)
• Sharon Gubbay Helfer, Ph.D, Religion (Renewal)
• Katja MacLeod Kessin, Ph.D., Humanities (Studio Arts and Art History)
• Nathalie Pilon, MA, Department of Religion
• Sonia Zylberberg, Ph.D, Religion (Renewal)

• Marlene Bonneau, Department of Religion
• Sharon Gubbay Helfer, Department of Religion (Judaic Studies)
  "The Past has a Vote, not a Veto: A Case Study in the (Re-)Construction of Jewish Memory"
  Ms. Gubbay Helfer’s research focused on the Reconstructionist Synagogue of Montreal, a relatively highly educated congregation founded on rationalist and naturalist beliefs, set since its inception in the context of a nationalist Québec. How does this congregation construct memory? What are the rituals, the texts, the programmatic activities that create or recreate the myths, the history, and the personal memories that shape Jewish life?
• Extensive interviewing, participant observation of synagogue life, and an analysis of texts and archives formed the basis of an exploration of the themes: Memory and Identity, Memory and Politics, Memory and Ethics Memory and the Divine.
• Yvonne Hardt, Department of History
• Eve Lerner, Department of History
  Ms. Lerner has studied Montreal's Jewish labour milieu, between 1920 and 1950. Her focus was to determine the place of activists in the Jewish community at large, the extent of inter-ethnic interaction, the impact of the International Trade Unionism in the garment trade on the Quebec labour movement, as well as the role of married women in the activist milieu. Ultimately, Ms. Lerner’s goal was to gain an understanding of the dynamic milieu of Jewish Montreal in its formative years, while maintaining the perspective of a rapidly changing Quebec society. Conducting interviews, exploring local archival resources, and studying the historiography of the Jewish Left in Canada, were among her methods of research gathering.
• Sonia Zylberberg, Department of Religion
  Working towards a doctorate in Judaic Studies at Concordia University, Ms. Zylberberg’s thesis examined contemporary Jewish women's rituals. Many new rituals have arisen as a result of the changing conditions of Jewish communities in North America; these include Rosh Hodesh groups and women's seders. Ms. Zylberberg's study analyzed these rituals in terms of their relationship with their respective communities, and the ways in which the rituals are created by communities and function, in turn, to both reinforce existing communities and create new ones.