Shababnikim

Shababnikim (Hebrew: שבאבניקים) is an Israeli television comedy series that aired on HOT in 2017 and 2018. The show includes 28 episodes, each around 30 minutes, focused on lives of four Haredi Jewish Yeshiva students. In January 2021, the first season began streaming internationally with English subtitles under the title The New Black. As of May 2023, the series airs on Streaming television service ChaiFlicks.

It is named after the Hebrew term shababnik.

A second season aired in North America in 2022 and a third season is in the works.

Premise
The show follows four Haredi yeshiva students in Jerusalem: Avinoam (Daniel Gad), who is the son of a Knesset member; Dov, nicknamed Lazer (Omer Perelman Striks), who comes from a wealthy family that primarily lives in New York City; Meir (Israel Attias), who comes from a poor Mizrahi/Sephardi family; and Gedaliah (Ori Laizerouvich), a nerdy and pious Torah scholar who joins the group. The show also includes Maya Wertheimer as Devorah, who is Lazer's sister and Gedaliah's love interest and--in season two--fiancee.

Main

 * Daniel Gad as Avinoam Lasri
 * Ori Laizerouvich as Gedaliah
 * Omer Perelman Striks as Dov Laser
 * Israel Atias as Meir Sabag
 * Maya Wertheimer as Debora Laser (recurring S1, main S2)
 * Guri Alfi as Shlomi Zacks (recurring S1, main S2)

Recurring

 * Dov Nalon as Rabbi Bloch
 * Rotem Keinan as Rabbi Ashi Spitzer
 * Golan Azulai as Eliyahu Lasri
 * Shira Naor as Shira
 * Shely Ben Josheph as Ruth Gottlieb
 * Zohar Strauss as Ehud Stern

Notable guest stars

 * Yehuda Levi as Yehuda Levi (S1)

Critical response
The show was nominated for awards in eight categories by the Israeli Academy of Film and Television, winning four, including Best Comedy, Best Comedy Script, and Best Comedy Actor.

Tablet magazine described the show as "funny, whimsical, and cutting" continuing "Stylistically, Malka [creator] trades soft-lens nostalgia for Tarantinoesque dark, even violent, comedy." The show was also praised by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency as a "wacky, stylized comedy with an excellent soundtrack and a whole new way of depicting the world of the yeshiva." The review continued: "But if fast-paced, laugh-out-loud “Shababnikim” distinguishes itself from the likes of “Shtisel,” full of melancholic plotlines and dreary music, it also stands apart because of the in-depth way it explores fault lines of race within haredi communities."