Researcher and Artist
Sharon Gubbay Helfer is a professional oral historian specializing in life stories, a multimedia artist and a researcher/practitioner in the area of difficult dialogues and listening skills. Following a PhD in Jewish Studies focusing on Montreal’s Reconstructionist Synagogue, she carried out postdoctoral research in Jewish-Catholic dialogue at the Université de Montréal and then worked on the major Oral History Centre project “Life Stories of Montrealers Displaced by Wars, Genocides and Other Human Rights Violations” where she produced a Palestinian Canadian Life Stories project. Dr. Gubbay Helfer is a certified facilitator with the Compassionate Listening Project and with the Compassionate Integrity Training curriculum. She was the creator of the SSHRC-funded project: Rabbis and Imams in 21st-century Montreal: their paths to the present, towards a shared future, where she video-recorded interviews with Seven Montreal Rabbis. As of 2023, she has been working on a book about photographer Germaine Kanova, thanks to Research/Creation grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.
