Need Help: Interview Idea
So I have this idea to interview interesting individuals in Highland Park on this blog. For example, someone here was one of the only women among thousands of Breslov men who visit the grave of Rebbe Nachman in the Ukraine. Yesterday, Mark Shoulson was mentioned on this post on Deciphering Samaritan. And my friend Elisheva aka Liselle could talk all about hypnotherapy or about the Algerian Civil War and how the Jews got *&$#@!ed (misled?) by the French government.
Here’s where I need your help: I don’t know what to ask. I’ve never done an interview before. What would you ask? Thanks.
A Simple Jew says
Ask the woman about Uman! I would be facinated to read about it.
Jameel @ The Muqata says
Wow...interviewing Mark Shoulson would be fascinating!
I'd ask him about how he got interested in the Shomronim, and their language. Has he ever visited them in Israel (Har Greizim and in Holon)? Did StarTrek influence him to learn other languages or was he already language-proficient before he taught himself "Klingon"?
I'm sure there are some great posts out there on the art of interviewing. I'll see if I can find any.
Thanks for the link. Regards!
--jameel
Leora says
Mark was interviewed once in the New York Times. An email interview. I'll need to dig it up.
He once told us he tried learning "standard" ancient languages, like Old German, but that didn't interest him as much as Old Welsh or whatever else he knows.
His wife is my doctor, and I'm going to her office today. I'll find out what he's up to lately.
Ilana-Davita says
I think I'd start by asking the person to introduce her/himself briefly. Then I think questions will flow in more easily.
Concerning the woman who visited the grave of rebbe Nachman (I suppose during Rosh Hashanah) I'd definitely ask her what it was like to be one of the only women present, I'd like to know how the men reacted to her presence (if they did), if she would advise other women to go, why she went in the first place (maybe this should come before the other ones).
Last year some of my students interviewed Rochelle Krich via email. I wrote a post about this too. Here it is:
http://ilanadavita.wordpress.com/2007/06/26/chesed-rochelle-krich/
As I said in the post, I can email the interview, I wasn't sure it was right to post it directly so I didn't.
Leora says
A Simple Jew (whose comment I had to fish out of my comment spam folder, sorry for the delay), I'll see if I can get the email address of Heather, the woman who went to Uman. I think I have her phone number.
Thanks for the ideas as always, Ilana-Davita.
Miriam says
Sounds fascinating! There are some good tips here: http://www.radiodiaries.org/handbook4.html
Also, if you listen to The Story from American Public Media (on NPR) the host is fabulous.
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