Mensch is an old Yiddish word.
There isn't a perfect English translation.
The closest is probably a good human being.
Someone with integrity. Someone who does the right thing. Someone you'd want alongside you when life gets difficult.
For me, the word goes back to my Papa Raphael.
Mensch came from something I needed too.
For a long time, I thought doing well in life meant achieving more. More success. More recognition. More proof that I was doing alright. Then life got a bit more complicated. I became a dad. My mum was involved in a major car accident. Work stopped feeling the way it once had. And I started asking some different questions. Not just:
How successful can I become? But: What actually makes a good life? What kind of husband, father, friend and man do I want to be?
And perhaps most importantly: Who am I talking to about any of this?
I didn't need more answers.
I needed good people around me. Men I could tell the truth to. Men who could challenge me without judging me. Men who could sit with the difficult stuff and still take the piss out of me five minutes later. Over time, that became Mensch.
We're not trying to become perfect men.
Fuck that. We're practising something much simpler: Being here. Being honest. Being caring. Being courageous.
Sometimes we practise it sitting in circle. Sometimes in cold water. Sometimes around a fire. Sometimes with our kids running around us. And then we go back into our actual lives and try again.
That's Mensch.
Not somewhere to escape your life. A community to help you show up for it.
Hope to see you there soon,
Josh x
Someone who walked the talk, always came from love, acted with fierce courage, spoke his truth, and did it all whilst embracing the highs and lows that made up his life.
It is these values that inspired me to pursue my own journey of self-discovery and why I created this community; so it could act as a space to inspire other men to do the same.
The people behind Mensch
Mensch might have started with me, but it's never really been about me. Over the years, some brilliant people have helped shape, challenge and bring Mensch to life. Today, there's a small crew of us helping create and hold different parts of the community.
Josh Fineman
Founder, Men’s coach and Chief Facilitator
Josh Fineman is a transformational coach and group facilitator based in North London. He started Mensch because he wanted somewhere men could talk honestly about life, challenge themselves and build the kind of friendships that are surprisingly hard to find as adults. As a dad to four kids (three human, one dog), husband to his childhood sweetheart and lover of saunas and ice baths, Josh is trying to build a life he loves living now and will respect himself for having lived later. It’s a philosophy he brings into his work and the community he’s building through Mensch.
Alongside Mensch, Josh gives talks at organisations and coaches a small number of men navigating fatherhood, purpose, relationships and ambition, and figuring out what they want from the next chapter of their lives.
Dani Fineman
Events Director
Dani is (in Josh’s opinion)... superwoman. Not only is she a passionate mum to their three kids, she has spent her 20-year career helping thousands of children with complex pain build new relationships with their bodies and minds through her holistic physiotherapy work. She brings a huge amount of care, warmth and practical wisdom to Mensch, particularly as we think about how the work we do as men ripples out into our relationships and families.
She also happens to be phenomenal at all the things Josh isn’t... and is the force behind many of Mensch’s big events and retreats.
Gavin Pressman
Mentor & Facilitator
Gavin is a coach, facilitator and trainer with more than 25 years' experience working with leaders in some of the world's biggest organisations. He's spent much of that time exploring personal development, mindfulness and men's work, and brings a rare combination of wisdom, warmth and a healthy refusal to take any of it too seriously to Mensch.
He's also a father, grandfather, son, friend and fellow traveller figuring out this messy business of being human alongside the rest of us.
Toby Gillingham
Retreat partner and movement practitioner
Toby is a master of movement and bodywork. From Jiu Jitsu to yoga, breathwork to Capoeira, if you want to get out of your head and connect to your body, Toby is the guy to help you.
Toby runs Mana & Wak, a retreat space just down the road from Josh in North London, and has become a close collaborator on many of Mensch’s events and experiences, bringing his love of movement, nature and getting people out of their comfort zones into the mix.
Danny Newman
Rabbi & Facilitator
Danny is a rabbi, facilitator and community leader. He founded HaMakom, the UK’s largest Jewish mindfulness community, and has been involved in men’s work for over a decade. He brings a rare mix of spiritual depth, curiosity and humour to the circles and experiences he helps hold at Mensch.
Beyond his work, Danny is a devoted dad to two boys and, like Josh, a lover of wild swimming, saunas and generally getting into unnecessarily cold water.