Blog Review - Truth, Praise and Help:
Musings of a Gen X Yiddishe Mamme by Renee Ghert-Zand
By Iris Ruth Pastor "Let My People Know" contributor 

What’s different about this site?

Everything. Visit www.Truthpraiseandhelp.wordpress.com

Name/Mission: Ghert-Zand named her blog after her three sons, whose names are Hebrew and from the Bible. They mean truth, praise and help – which ties in with her mission for her blog: to always tell the truth, to provide a forum for pointing out the praiseworthy action and words of others and to help people be Jewish.

Style: Ghert-Zand uses pictures to accompany her blog entries and also presents selections from You Tube to illustrate her points. One recent video was grappling with the issue centering on Orthodox Jews considering women dirty during their monthly cycle and featured a video on the topic, in addition to her writings.

Purpose: Ghert-Zand, a Jewish educator and writer, feels “a sense of imbalance …we are on the verge of a major change in what it means to be Jewish and live Jewishly.”

What does she write about?

She writes about characters like the late Toronto artist Charles Katz, who never had a Bar
Mitzvah due to his dyslexia. He “invented” the Incredible Bar Mitzvah Machine that will offer playful solutions to obstacles and barriers encountered when preparing for this special day. She writes about comic artist Eli Valley on his originality and creativity. She writes about the rash of teen suicides in her community, centering on the a particular railroad crossing site.

She focuses on Jewish White House staffers who get together for Shabbat dinners where they can kick back and relax with friends, both Jewish and non-Jewish. This, she says, reflects a key element of identification among the millennials – following the parts of Jewish practice that fit their lives and not following those that don’t.

She gleans highlights from a seminar she attended where Katie Orenstein spoke and posed the question “Why don’t more women write op-eds?” The answer: they don’t feel they are experts on anything.

Worth an habitual read?

You bet. This is one groovy babe, not afraid to tackle any topic. Her entries are well- written and well thought-out, with material that manages to be whimsical, serious, critical, interesting or riveting depending on the entry.

I’m hooked!