With popularity and sales up, Mensch on a Bench has much to smile about

The Mensch on a Bench is so much happier now than he was a year ago. Look carefully and you will notice that, whereas the previous Mensch had a decidedly worried look, this latest version of the popular Hanukkah toy is flashing an exuberant grin.

Is the erstwhile Mensch smiling because he expects to be in some 100,000 homes by year’s end? In truth, the change in visage was suggested last year by the “sharks” on ABC’s “Shark Tank” program, where Mensch on a Bench founder Neal Hoffman pitched for – and secured – investors in his company. The requested change in facial expression was one that Hoffman was happy to make. 

“We were going so fast – in less than a year we went from concept to product on the shelf – that I didn’t match the Mensch’s face to the one in the book,” Hoffman told JNS.org. He was referring to how the plush doll is sold for around $30 along with a book that tells the story of Hanukkah while featuring “Moshe the Mensch” guarding the miraculous lights of the menorah in the ancient Temple.

But the 38-year-old Cincinnati man, a toy pro after his six years with Hasbro, is not one to rest on his laurels – or his bench. Having sold out last year’s crop of 60,000 units – the previous year, his initial run of 1,000 Mensches was snapped up within 10 days – he has already sold 50,000 this fall, well ahead of last year’s pace. And at outlets such as Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond, the Mensch and his book now have company – Hoffman has produced a new plush menorah (featuring the kids from his son’s Hebrew school singing all three prayers over the Hanukkah candles), a plush dreidel, an activity book and the perennial Hanukkah favorite, chocolate. 

All of those products share a theme.

“It’s about putting more ‘fun-ukkah’ in Hanukkah,” Hoffman said.

The Mensch first popped into Hoffman’s brain when his 4-year-old, Jacob, was begging his dad for an Elf on the Shelf – the legendary Christmas toy.

“Why shouldn’t Jewish kids have something they can relate to?” Hoffman reasoned, adding that interfaith families now employ the Mensch to introduce Jewish traditions and values into their homes.

“To be a mensch is first and foremost to be an ethical person, someone who cares about others and is doing the right thing,” Hoffman said. “It’s a very Jewish message.”

That pleases ones of his biggest fans: Ina Hoffman, his mother.

“Creative? Yes, he always was, and even when he was young he was fascinated by how businesses work,” said Ina, speaking from her Salem, Mass., home. “He comes up with amazing ideas and, unlike most people, he acts on them.”

Of course, she is proud of her son’s success, but mostly, Ina is proud of something less fleeting.

“It takes a mensch to promote a mensch,” she said. “He brought the idea to so many who didn’t have the awareness of what a mensch is.”

Evidently, it’s not a message limited to kids, with the likes of Whoopi Goldberg (the Mensch was featured on her show, “The View”) and former U.S. senator Joe Lieberman caught on camera with the Mensch.