Product Update
Is The Mensch on a Bench Still in Business? (2026 Update)
Is The Mensch on a Bench from Shark Tank still around in 2026? The deal it made, the sharks who invested, and where to buy The Mensch on a Bench today.
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Neal Hoffman spent six years in marketing at Hasbro before he told his son that Jews don't do elves on shelves, they do mensches on benches, and turned that one-liner into a plush rabbi named Moshe with his own Hanukkah storybook. More than a decade later, the company built around that joke is still selling to hundreds of thousands of Jewish families every holiday season.
The Short Answer
Yes, The Mensch on a Bench is still in business. The company's own site shows a live 2026 copyright and an active family of products, the original Mensch on a Bench, plus a Dancing Bubbe, Snow Mensch, and Mitzvah Moose that have been added to round out the holiday lineup over the years.
The company markets itself as reaching over 325,000 Jewish families and operates under Monkeybar Consulting LLC, based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Building a genuine multi-character product family around what started as a single Kickstarter toy is a sign of a company that found real staying power in a fairly narrow, specific market.
The Shark Tank Pitch
Hoffman pitched The Mensch on a Bench in Season 6, Episode 12, during one of the show's holiday specials, out of Madeira, Ohio. He had already validated demand before the show aired, raising over 22,000 dollars on Kickstarter in May 2013 for an initial run of 500 dolls and storybooks that sold out and made the product a holiday hit that same season.
He asked the panel for 150,000 dollars in exchange for 10 percent equity, pitching a plush toy designed to give Jewish families their own version of the elf-on-a-shelf tradition that had come to dominate Christmas merchandising.
The Deal That Got Done
Lori Greiner and Robert Herjavec teamed up on the deal, putting up the full 150,000 dollars Hoffman asked for but taking 15 percent equity instead of the 10 percent originally on the table.
Lori's retail and product-development background made her an obvious fit for a seasonal novelty item that needed to scale into big-box stores fast, while Robert added a second set of hands and a different network for a founder who had, up to that point, been running the business essentially alone out of a Kickstarter campaign.
Building a Character Family, Not Just a Toy
A lot of Shark Tank novelty products live and die as a single item. Hoffman took a different path, expanding Moshe the Mensch into a small cast of characters, Dancing Bubbe, a grandmother figure, Snow Mensch, and Mitzvah Moose, each with its own personality and role in the Hanukkah storytelling the brand built around its original doll.
That decision matters for longevity. A single seasonal toy tends to peak and fade as novelty wears off, but a character family gives repeat customers a reason to come back and complete a set, and gives the company multiple products to market each holiday season instead of leaning on one item indefinitely. It is the same playbook toy companies like Hoffman's former employer, Hasbro, have used for decades, just applied to a much smaller, more specific niche.
The Mensch on a Bench net worth in 2026
No independently sourced net worth figure for The Mensch on a Bench or for Neal Hoffman personally is available in current tracking coverage or press reporting. The company has not disclosed a specific revenue or valuation number since its early Kickstarter and pitch-time figures, so any specific dollar estimate here would be a guess this article is not going to make.
What is verifiable is scale of reach rather than dollars: the company's own marketing claims over 325,000 Jewish families served, and a four-character product family that has stayed in continuous production for more than a decade. For a single-holiday niche novelty product, staying on shelves that long without needing to constantly relaunch is itself a meaningful signal, even without a hard revenue number attached to it.
Where Things Stand Now
Recap: The Mensch on a Bench pitched in Season 6's holiday special out of Madeira, Ohio, asking for 150,000 dollars at 10 percent, and closed with Lori Greiner and Robert Herjavec at 150,000 dollars for 15 percent.
Since the deal, Hoffman expanded a single plush toy into a four-piece holiday character lineup, Moshe the original Mensch, Dancing Bubbe, Snow Mensch, and Mitzvah Moose, and kept the company running under Monkeybar Consulting out of Cincinnati.
The straightforward answer is yes, it is still in business, still selling every Hanukkah season, and still built around the same idea Hoffman had when he first told his son that Jewish families needed their own shelf-sitting character.
Where to buy The Mensch on a Bench
Still selling as of June 23, 2026. Check today's price and availability.
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See the full The Mensch on a Bench deal breakdown and term sheet →
