What’s a shababnik?

Advertisement

I tend to think I have a fairly good grasp of Jewish lingo, but this YNet article on a real-life haredi West Side Story used a word I’d somehow never come across: Shababnik.

YNet defines this as “a yeshiva dropout.” FailedMessiah defines it as “a kid who hangs out on the streets and doesn’t learn.” According to a TalkBack post on YNet, a shababnik is “a person from a haredi family who thinks secular but for cultural reasons dresses with a Kippa and like a Hareidi.”

Two questions I haven’t answered yet: Can a girl be a shababnik or does it specifically refer to haredi young men? Where does the word come from?

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Discover More

Inside The Haredi World

Six Haredi educational institutions are suspected of having cheated the state out of tens of millions of shekels through the ...

Protests in Jerusalem

More from YNet on the Haredi protests against the gay pride parade set for November 10 in Jerusalem. Protesters have ...

Attitudes Toward the “Other”

-A majority of Israeli public feels religious and secular Jews ought to live in separate neighborhoods. (Ynet)-A new poll looks ...

Advertisement