Small Haredi-Zionist Orthodox Political Party Distributes Campaign Literature Deceptively Made To Look Like Exact Copies Of Chabad Handouts

The haredi-Zionist Orthodox Segev Party is running in the Tel Aviv municipal elections this week. Last week, just before Shabbat, Segev distributed campaign literature in Tel Aviv synagogues. That literature was an exact duplicate of Chabad’s popular parsha sheet, which is distributed nationwide. Chabad was reportedly unhappy enough to sue…

Above: Segev's fake Chabad parsha sheet. Below: Actual Chabad parsha sheets and masthead.

Yeshiva World reports:

The Segev chareidi/religious list running in the Tel Aviv election felt the best way to get its message out to readers on the last Shabbos before the elections is in the form of a sheet distributed in shuls. The format selected was an exact duplicate of Tzieri Chabad’s popular שיחות השבוע, which is distributed nationwide.

Chabad officials learned of the pamphlet and tried to contact officials to prevent distribution of the copycat Shabbos handout, albeit without success. In a last ditch effort Chabad turned to the Tel Aviv District Court seeking to block distribution of the election material. Justice Denya Karat-Meir compared the two and agreed to issue an order prohibiting the distribution of the election material.

While Chabad won this battle it lost the war for election campaigners were notified to get the election information sheets out before the court ruling and in most cases, they succeeded in doing just that.

Chabad spokesman Rav Menachem Brod and Tzieri Chabad director Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak HaKohen Aronoff were astounded at the chutzpah that the party had to just copy the Chabad weekly in its entirety, format, fonts and down to the last detail. It even said “307 Chabad houses stand at your disposal” when in fact Chabad has no connection to the Segev list.

Comments

[Steven Wolf]

I keep hearing here and elsewhere of Haredim, suing each other in civil courts, should not Orthodox Jews be settling their differences though a Beth-Din?.

[RWisler]

Steven,
When it comes to cash, Judaism and halacha go out the window.

[shmuel]

One chareidi will recognise the Beth Din of another chareidi faction?

Sure and pigs with a Landa hechsher will fly with pigs of a Mahfouz hechsher

[(The other) Eli]

Maybe they're right. If anyone should know about plagiarism, it's Chabad. After all, they practically plagiarize a whole religion

[Maskil]

RWisler, you said it!

They also ttske a queue from their Rebbe, who had the police called on his nephew for removing books from the library and sued him in civil court.