How to Be a Mensch

My mother gasped when she saw me walk through the door after a semester away at college. I had left home clean shaven with short hair, and now—well, let’s just say she had trouble finding my face. She took one look at me and cried out, “Oy! Oy! Oy! Why can’t you be a mensch?” “What is a mensch?” you ask. The word mensch (rhymes with bench) is a Yiddish word. Yiddish is written