Henri Lubatti played David Sherman, Felicity's 2nd season and possibly Jewish love interest.
Felicity has had more than her fair share of hot men professing their love for her. But often forgotten in the whole Ben-Felicity-Noel triangle that kept on giving is her brief relationship with Jewish boy, David Sherman.
The show never identifies him as a Jew nor is his religious affiliation (if the writers ever settled on one) germane to the episodes he appeared in. He is basically there to be the post-Ben rebound who isn’t Noel.
But as I watched the episodes in which Felicity dates the cute-ish, short-ish, hirsute grad student who is the child of a wacky academic (in this case, Felicity’s drawing professor), I couldn’t help but think that this guy must be Jewish. I mean, he looks exactly like the Israeli who is sitting opposite me at the coffee shop as I type this. He also looks like half the guys I’ve dated over the last decade. (I’m a Jewish woman who lives in New York–I certainly attract a certain type.) And he’s got a mother who fawns over him, meddles in his affairs and sets him up with Felicity.
He is also the first and only non-studly guy Felicity dates and sleeps with. Her first fling was with hot art student, Eli, played by Simon Rex. And the Scotts–Foley and Speedman–couldn’t be described as being averagely cute looking. Despite Noel’s adorkable personality and interests, he looks like a Hollywood actor not a nerdy student.
Obviously, none of the above is actual proof of his Jewishness (and in fact, the actor who plays Sherman is not Jewish), but it is curious to note that Felicity dates only one man who fits the nerdy Jewish male archetype that is well-represented across New York City and in urban universities.
I would’ve thought that Felicity would have done well with a guy like David. And indeed, her relationship went well with him after a bad first date. He was the first guy she really slept with, not counting Eli, who was just a one night stand. He helped make her feel more comfortable with sex. (He reappears briefly as an apparition in one episode and says as much.) She didn’t put sex up on a pedestal as she did with Noel (took him three years to get some) and Ben (took him many months). After a reasonable period of dating and with some mild hand-wringing, she jumps into bed with David. He was not hot enough to be one night stand material nor was he so studly that sex with him had to be endlessly deferred.
Nothing really goes wrong in their relationship except that he tries to move it along a bit fast for sophomore Felicity and she ends up smooching the much hotter Noel at Thanksgiving dinner.
But do not despair moderately attractive Jewish men–you guys mostly win in the real world if not Hollywood.
