QUIRKY HANNUKAH HITS
From Dr. Dreidel to Mensch on a Bench, Jewish entrepreneurs tap into a new market,
Lots of people make a living from the seasonal business of Christmas — lights, trees, stocking stuffers, arteryclogging eggnog — but the much more niche business of Hanukkah products is tougher. Some entrepreneurs have made it work (or are trying) with quirky products whether earnest (like the Star of David tree topper) or mildly subversive (like the Santa Claus yarmulke or a menorah-shaped bong).
Some purveyors of these seasonal products, like Neal Hoffman, never expected to be in the Hanukkah business. Hoffman was shopping in a Nordstrom in 2012 when his son ran up to him holding an Elf on the Shelf, the popular Christmas toy.
That turned out to be both complicated and fortuitous: complicated, because Hoffman is Jewish, his wife is Catholic and they had decided to raise their children Jewish.
And fortuitous because of what happened next.
“I was like, ‘Dude, you can’t have that,’ ” said Hoffman, who previously had worked at Hasbro, the toy giant. “‘You can have a . . .’ — and I was like, ‘What would be Jewish I could rhyme with?’ ” he said. “And then I said, ‘I’m going to get you a Mensch on a Bench.’ ”
After raising more than $22,000 (all figures U.S.) on Kickstarter, Hoffman produced his first run of Mensch on a Bench dolls for the following holiday season and has been selling them ever since. They come with a storybook that situates the bearded character, who wears a black hat and a Jewish prayer shawl, in the Hanukkah story: he watches over the oil in the Maccabees’ temple to ensure it burns for eight days.
“Elf on a Shelf is a great product,” Hoffman said. “But they just left the Jewish market sitting there saying: ‘What about us? What about our kids?’ ”
In 2013, the first year, sales of Mensch on a Bench, which retails for $30, reached about $100,000, mostly through Hoffman’s own website.
In 2014, Bed Bath & Beyond picked up the product and Hoffman ap- peared on Shark Tank, pushing sales to $900,000. Revenues were $800,000 last year and will be about the same this year — which suits Hoffman.
“We pull in a six-figure profit, I get to do something I love and I work maybe 20 hours a week during most of the year,” said Hoffman, who this season introduced a plush talking toy, Ask Bubbe.
Amy Kritzer, who with her brother, Andrew, owns Modern Tribe, an online Judaica store with an offbeat edge, said that Hanukkah accounted for about 40 per cent of annual revenue.
Popular this year is the Emoji Menorah from Rite Lite ($30), with each candle base wearing a different expression, and the Jewdolph Knit Koozie ($12), a bottle sleeve with a red-nosed reindeer whose antlers form a menorah, from Freakers.
Also on the website is the Yamaclaus, a fluffy red-and-white Santa Claus hat in the shape of a yarmulke.
Alan Masarsky started Yamaclaus with his boyfriend, Larik Malish. Both grew up in interfaith homes and both were fans of the 2003 episode of The O.C. that popularized the term “Chrismukkah,” a portman- teau for a merged Christmas and Hanukkah celebration. On the episode, characters wore what they called a yamaclaus.
The couple had no inkling of starting a business when, in 2011, they hosted a holiday party and made their guests a crude version of the beanies out of red construction paper and cotton balls.
They were a hit, so they checked to see if the trademark for Yamaclaus was available (it was) and if they could raise $2,500 on Kickstarter to start production (they did). In 2013, Yamaclaus ($11) began selling on the company’s website.
Masarsky, a marketing manager at Facebook who lives in San Francisco, said year-over-year sales had increased 200 per cent this year, as it had the previous two, but declined to provide more financial details.
Yamaclaus wearers who post pho- tos on social media tend to be in nonreligious settings.
“Tons of our customers wear them when they’re lighting a menorah,” Masarsky said. “But not at shul — not at a synagogue.”
Morri Chowaiki grew up in a Jewish home; his wife, Marina, grew up in an interfaith one.
“She always wanted a Christmas tree and I was like, ‘No way,’ ” said Chowaiki, who in 2005, after they were married about a decade, relented. “I said, ‘All right, just don’t go crazy — if I walk into the front room and there’s a nativity scene there, I might have a little issue with it.’ ”
Marina Chowaiki bought and decorated a tree, then unveiled it. And her husband was impressed — it was festooned with dreidels and blue and silver ornaments. But at the top of the tree: a five-pointed star.
“I laughed and said, ‘You couldn’t at least find a Jewish star to put at the top of the tree?’ ” Morri Chowaiki said. By 2009, he had designed and trademarked one, the Hanukkah Tree Topper, and sold about 2,000. By 2013, the product had been picked up by retailers, including Bed Bath & Beyond and SkyMall, and sold 35,000 units — and earned Morri Chowaiki a spot on Shark Tank.
The Menorah Tree grew out of a similar marital dynamic: Michael Patchen, who is Jewish, wanted something festive to suit his wife, Mary, who was half Catholic and half Jewish. In 2006, Patchen and his brother, Alex, made a menorah out of wood and artificial pine garland, decorated it with ornaments and lights and surprised her with it.
Now they sell a metal version that is seven-feet high, assembles like an artificial tree and sells for $295 on their website.
In 2012, David Daily had an idea for how to make the Hanukkah party he and his wife were hosting in Austin, Texas, memorable: a menorah bong.
Daily, who owns Grav Labs, a glass bong and pipe manufacturer in Austin with annual sales of $12 million, made the bong himself. It was about two-feet long and had eight bowls with stems that could hold candles.
“I definitely had a Jewish experience growing up of enjoying cannabis with all my cousins,” Daily said. “And this menorah bong obviously is meant to be shared.”
Their guests were, in every sense, bowled over, but Daily never planned on marketing the menorah bong. It sat on a shelf in his home for a couple of years. Then an online head shop, 420 Science, borrowed it and made a video of it in action. It garnered about two million views on Facebook and YouTube.
Grav recently produced 100 menorah bongs. At 14 inches, they are less cumbersome than the original. They cost $700 from retailers, including 420 Science.
But Dr. Dreidel may not be widely available until next Hanukkah. Hannah Rothstein, a conceptual artist, conceived of the dreidel in 2014 and has made fewer than a hundred of the wooden tops on a commission basis, charging $150. The dreidel features images of rapper Dr. Dre and a mass-produced version will retail for about $40 — barring complications.
“I have not gotten any cease-and-desist letters from Dr. Dre’s lawyers,” Rothstein said. “And if he wants to go in on the idea, we could make a million together.”
Next year she also hopes to produce a Hanukkah homage to Macklemore, another hip-hop artist: the Mackle-menorah.
“I get to do something I love and I work maybe 20 hours a week during most of the year.” NEAL HOFFMAN MENSCH ON A BENCH CREATOR