As part of their preparation for their filmed interviews with Holocaust survivors, seniors participating in Names, Not Numbers© were treated to an interviewing workshop. Mrs. Tova Rosenberg, Names, Not Numbers© creator, invited Ms. Shira Hanou, staff writer for The Jewish Week, to work with the students.
Ms. Hanau taught the seniors how to ask open-ended questions, how to handle interviewing someone about a traumatic experience, and how to make an interview feel like a real conversation. Ms. Hanau remarked, “My job is really a privilege, because I get to take a first pass at creating communal memory, writing the stories that one day will become part of a broader narrative in the story of the Jewish people.”
The students enjoyed their experience learning with Ms. Hanau and are looking forward to applying these techniques when they begin their interviews, understanding the responsibility before them in capturing these stories.