Over a decade ago, Neal Hoffman’s son spotted an Elf on a Shelf. The magical toy pops up around Christmastime to tell Santa whether children have been naughty or nice.
Hoffman’s son wanted one. But there was just one problem: the Jewish family didn’t celebrate Christmas.
“I kind of made this joke and said, ‘No, man, you can have mensch on a bench’,” Hoffman recalled.
It sparked an idea for the former Hasbro employee. What if there was a way to lighten the Jewish winter holiday with more than just a menorah?
The Cincinnati resident started a Kickstarter campaign to make the Jewish counterpart to the magical elf. He raised $18,000 to make his own seasonal rhyming toy: the Mensch on a Bench.
“We call it putting the ‘fun’-ukkah into Hanukkah,” Hoffman said.
Hanukkah’s mascot
The Mensch on a Bench doesn’t come with all the same rules as the Elf on a Shelf: he doesn’t lose his magic if you touch him.
Instead of snitching to Santa, the toy comes with a storybook that teaches kids how to be a mensch, the Yiddish word for a good and honorable person.
“If you read the book, I try to make the Forest Gump of Judaism,” Hoffman said. “And by that I mean he doesn’t change things. I didn’t want to make Santa Claus. I wanted to keep and honor the story of the Maccabees.”
In the Hanukkah story, the Maccabees have fought a war to rededicate a Jewish temple, and they have just a tiny jar of oil to get them through eight nights. Hoffman’s children’s book retells that story from the perspective of the Mensch.
“The Mensch comes in and offers to sit on the bench and watch the oil for the Maccabees. Each day the Maccabees wake up and they can't believe the oil's still it. And the Mensch says, ‘Oh, that's amazing. Let me introduce you to Dreidel or Latkas or Gelt.’ All these Jewish traditions get introduced through the book,” he said.
The didactic doll was an instant hit. Not just for his son: Hoffman sold the first 500 mensches (and their respective benches) in just 10 days.
Mensch’s rise to fame
He wanted to make even more. So he brought his jolly bearded Jewish figure to the ABC show ‘Shark Tank’, where he pitched the toy to investors as a way to bring major fun to the minor Jewish holiday.
Two sharks took the bait and invested $150,000 into Hoffman's dream. His success on the show sent the toy’s popularity to new heights and inspired even more ideas. In Hoffman’s home office, dolls in different hues of blue peer out from a crowded shelf.
“We have the mitzvah moose. It's a blue moose with a menorah for antlers that light up. Next to him is Judah Maccabee, the Super Duper Jew-per Hero,” Hoffman said, gesturing to the smiling toys.
He has a wealth of punny Yiddish pals: An adorable puppy with dreidels, aptly named the Dreidel Dog, sits on its paws. A unicorn with a dark blue mane and the star of David on its chest, called the Jewnicorn, stands on a mensch bobblehead. Nearby, Saul the Snow Mensch, a gray bearded Frosty, is ready to sing his takes on classic Christmas carols with the push of a button.
Other characters are personal to Hoffman. He modeled ‘Ask Bubbe’, a Jewish grandmother, after his own Auntie Sue. She voiced the magic 8-ball-like doll that gives no-nonsense advice.
Plus, he created the Zebra of Zion, the only Jewish animal in the jungle, as a reflection of his son’s experiences.
“It is based on my life in Cincinnati, where we're in a suburb that doesn't have a lot of Jews in it. And my son is always the only Jewish kid in class, and we go in and we teach about Hanukkah. So we talk about [being] special, not different. And how do you celebrate the fact that you’re one of a kind?’”
A new tradition
It might seem frivolous to introduce new characters to a tradition that’s thousands of years old. But Hoffman says the toys are a tangible way to showcase the joy of Judaism.
“That's all we are trying to do: perpetuate Judaism,” he said. “As more and more families are interfaith and there's more risk of Judaism not being passed down, we're trying to introduce some traditions and some tools that you know bring smiles to faces.”
Hoffman believes even something as serious as faith can benefit from a little humor.
He’s not the only one: he’s sold over half a million of his Hanukkah heroes.
