Mabat Sheni (Second Look)
The Israel Television investigative program that documented Israeli society for more than four decades
Mabat Sheni (Second Look) was one of the best-known investigative programs in Israeli public television. Broadcast on Israel's Channel 1 from 1976 until 2017, it focused on Israeli society, its institutions, its communities and the issues shaping public life. Over more than four decades, the program offered viewers sustained, in-depth reporting on the country and became an important part of Israel's journalistic, documentary and public-memory culture.
An investigative window onto Israeli society
Mabat Sheni distinguished itself through journalistic investigations that examined social and public issues beyond the immediate news cycle. Its long run enabled the program to follow changes in Israeli society and to bring attention to stories, communities and problems that did not always receive sustained coverage. In this way, it created a continuing television record of Israeli life and of the periods through which the country developed.
Editors, presenters and producers
Michael Karpin edited and presented the program from its launch until 1986. Yarin Kimor presented it from 1986 to 1990, and Orit Lavi-Nashiel presented it in 2003–2004.
Keren Neubach began presenting Mabat Sheni in 2008. Itai Landsberg served as editor and producer, while also heading the documentary department at Channel 1. Neubach was followed by Channel 1 journalist Noa Barak-Wexler, who presented the program for four seasons, through the end of the 2014 season, which concluded in summer 2015. From November 2015 until the program ended in 2017, it was presented by journalist Yigal Ravid.
A name linked to Operation Brothers
The program's name acquired an unexpected historical association. In May 1989, the Israel Air Force used Mabat Sheni as the code name for a flight that brought 205 Ethiopian Jews to Israel as part of Operation Brothers III. The connection linked a familiar television program with one of Israel's important efforts to bring Ethiopian Jews to the country and with the history of Ethiopian Jewish immigration.
The end of the broadcast
Mabat Sheni ended after David Hahn, the official receiver of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, announced the closure of Channel 1's news division on May 9, 2017. The announcement came five days before the authority and the channel closed altogether. The program's conclusion marked the end of a long chapter in Israeli public television, during which investigative reporting provided a sustained way to examine society and public life.
Why Mabat Sheni belongs in Moreshet
Mabat Sheni merits inclusion in Moreshet because it represents an important chapter in Israeli media history and in the ways Israeli society was documented and examined for the public. For more than forty years, the program gave investigative journalism a continuing platform and preserved stories concerning many groups and communities in Israel. Its association with Operation Brothers III also connects the program's history with Jewish immigration and the lives of Ethiopian Jews in Israel. Moreshet.com provides a fitting place to remember the program not only as a television series, but as part of Israel's social, journalistic and public-heritage record.
