Public Speaking Tips / Engaging your Audience

-Dress respectfully, comfortably and conservatively.

-Maintain eye contact and keep your head high. Be proud!

-Set a comfortable tone: not too aloof, not too casual / chatty.

-Assume your audience knows nothing but don’t condescend when speaking to them.

-Keep your focus on your presentation and try not to go off on tangents.

-Don’t try to be all things to all people: do your thing and do it well.

-Set your parameters at the beginning of your talk and stick to them:

Ex. your talk is on topic X, don’t talk about topics Y or Z.

Ex. your talk is on anti-Semitism so don’t profess expertise on the Sinti / Roma.

Ex. your talk is on the Shoah so don’t answer questions about the intifada.

-If you don’t know the answer to a question, you are empowered to say you don’t know.

-Suggest other resources / persons that might have the answer.

-Practice makes perfect. If possible, record / videotape yourself and review…

-Practice out loud, not just reading in your head.  You’ll be surprised how much different a presentation can sound when you hear it out loud.

-Time management is very tricky.  Practice your timing, not just your speech.

-Pace yourself:  don’t speak too quickly or too slowly.

-If you are speaking in a large auditorium, speak a little slower than usual.

-Don’t mumble.

-You may be nervous but try not to come off as angry or hostile.  A little nervous is OK.

-If you make a mistake, don’t worry about it.  You don’t have to be overly apologetic.

-Remember that your audience wants you to succeed!

-Feel free to pause:  if you want to emphasize a point or if you need time to think of an answer to a question. Don’t worry about "dead air."  It is more important to engage your brain before you run your mouth.

-NEVER get into a debate with the audience:  as soon as you engage, you lose.

-Have the audience save their questions until the end or else you’ll never get to speak.

-Keep an eye on the time so you don’t run over.  Be discreet as you do this.

-If you have a Q-A component, have a pencil with you at the podium so you can jot down ideas or key points of the questions…so you don’t forget the question.

- Outline or lecture? What is your comfort level?

- Do you need to read from a text?  [Note: a turn-off for kids but can work in a large auditorium]

- Are prompts enough?

- If you want to read from a text, here are some important tips to help you:

** Use large font so you can glance down and easily read the text.

** Use bold, italics or colored font if you want to remind yourself to emphasize something.

** Work towards clarity of language:  use the right words and try not to repeat the same word more often then necessary.  Ex. Holocaust. You can also use Shoah, WWII, etc.

** Use only the top 2/3 of the page so your chin doesn’t drop when you look to the bottom.

** Follow along with your fingers as you read so if you look up to make eye contact with your audience, you can easily find your place again.

** Number your pages, just in case you drop them.

** Use a paper clip. Don’t staple your pages together.

** You may want to set your watch on the podium so you can see the time without being obvious that you are checking your watch.

** Visualize yourself giving your presentation: imagine it going well.  Imagine how you might handle any mistakes.

It can be sometimes become emotionally taxing to do these presentations.  It is okay to cry if that is how you feel.  Take a moment to compose yourself and then continue.

Crying is not a sign of weakness or failure.  It can have a powerful impact.

Never get angry with your audience. There may be stupid, bigoted people there.  Don’t sink to their level.  You may be angry but try not to show it.  Be professional.

With students:

-Make eye contact, especially with the kid who is restless or bored.

-Try to engage the students by plugging them into your story.

Ex. what would be that individual kid’s chances of survival?  Who in the class might survive?  How many?

-Remind the students what kids their age had to endure.

-Have the kids visualize this: one is hiding in an underground bunker, another is hiding in an attic like Anne Frank, another has false papers.  What problems might they have to deal with?**

-Do a class role-play where blue-eyed kids are considered superior and brown-eyed kids inferior and then impose classroom "Nuremberg Laws."  [Note: this was once done with a class of 3^rd graders and it took 15 minutes to totally change the entire class dynamic.]**
**Try this for just a few moments, just to make your point.

With adults:

-Emphasize the loss of personal freedoms and rights.

-Note the arbitrary nature of the violence even in the lives of the non-Jews.;  Ex. If someone got mad at you they could tell the Gestapo you were telling Hitler jokes.

-Plug them in to a selection. Who would go in which direction?  What about the other members of their families?

Basic Rules to remember:

1. If you don’t know the answer to a question, don’t make one up.

2. Do not engage in an argument with an audience member.  If someone tries to engage you, suggest that you address his / her specific concern privately after your talk.

3. NO COMPETITIVE SUFFERING!  Don’t get sucked into this.  Ex. All Jews were victims and German Jews were killed just as dead as Polish, Hungarian, Dutch, Italian, Czech of French Jews.Ex.  People suffered and died at most of the concentration camps.  You can certainly say that 1,000,000 died on Birkenau but remember that people suffered and died in Majdanek, Bergen-Belsen, etc.

4. Try to stay out of contemporary politics.  The Shoah is not the same as the intifada.  They are not parallel issues.  That is not what your talk is about.

5. Be as prepared as you can be for potential problems.  Know that there is always the chance that someone will throw you a screwy question.

Holocaust Deniers:  How to respond to them? Some possible answers:

-The German government has never denied the Holocaust.

-There are official documents at federal institutions, like the National Archives, the Library of Congress and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

-There are German and other records that were used at the Nuremberg, Dachau and Eichmann trials.

-There are tens of thousands of survivor testimonies that corroborate the documents.

-There are photos and films taken by the Nazis at the time.

Hecklers?

The Tough Questions: you may want to give some thought to these, just in case.

- Justice?  Can there ever be justice?

- Forgiveness?  Caution: are YOU entitled to forgive for someone else’s pain & suffering?

- How is the Holocaust different from other genocides?

- Why the Jews?  Note: racial anti-Semitism is an important concept here.

- Why didn’t the Allies do more?

- Why didn’t world Jewry do more?

- Why didn’t more people resist the Nazis?

- How do you feel about the Germans today?  Caution: do we blame the children / grandchildren who were not even born then?

- Is the Holocaust becoming commercialized?

- Why should we bother to study the Holocaust?

- What do you think of revisionists and deniers?

- Are there parallels between the Shoah and the situation with the Palestinians?

- How do you [or do your parents] feel about G-d and religion?

- What are some tough questions / situations that you anticipate?