Kendall Crawford

More than a decade ago, Neil Hoffman's son asked him for an elf on a shelf.

The only problem, the Jewish family didn't celebrate Christmas.

He turned that joke into a popular Hanukkah toy and a tool to teach kids the meaning behind the Jewish festival of lights.

The Mench on a Bench comes with a storybook that teaches kids how to be a mench, the Yiddish word for a good and honorable person.

Hoffman says it's a way to lighten the holiday with more than just a menorah.

Many families agree he sold over a half a million of his Hanukkah heroes.

For NPR News, I'm Kendall Crawford in Cincinnati.

And I'm Doah Lee Saikautel, NPR News in New York City.

And I kind of made this joke and said, no man, you can have a mensch on a bench.

We call it putting the phonica into Hanukkah.