Definition of "mensch"

[…] Scott Nearing was a grand old man a real mensch […]

1956, Allen Ginsberg, “America”, in Howl and Other Poems (Pocket Poets Series), City Lights Books, page 33

Doctor Dreyfuss [to C. C. Baxter]: Be a mensch!

1960, Billy Wilder, I. A. L. Diamond, The Apartment

Lionel Kessler, relaxing perhaps on a Louis Quinze day bed, garlanded all round with lines of beauty, seeing welcome proof that his clever maligned young friend was a mensch.

2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty […], 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, page 428

Where have all the mensches gone? The character of the administration reflects the character of the man at its head.

2006 February 20, Paul Krugman, “The Mensch Gap”, in The New York Times‎

Olie Kolzig: Goalie for the Washington Capitals who spent most of 16 seasons between the pipes for the team until being released in 2008. Had the longest career of any Capital. Now plays for Tampa Bay. The ultimate mensch, in my book.

2008 December 28, George Solomon, “My Little Red Book”, in The Washington Post, page D01

She was an Amerindian, and stout. She was a real mensch, […] a hard working person, who took pride in her job, which was to spray from an aerosol can a particular base.

2008, Dwight S. Huggins, Into the Greenhouse Vol. VI: Dreams