Dueling Funeral Homes Fight Over Mandel Name
The Chicago Tribune is reporting trouble in Skokie, Illinois, as two Jewish funeral parlors duke it out in court for the use of one man’s name.
It goes something like this: Service Corp. International, the company that owns the original parlor, Lloyd Mandel Levayah Funerals, is suing Lloyd Mandel himself, the former owner of Levayah. The company is demanding that the court prohibit Mr. Mandel from using his name for his new funeral service business, aptly named Lloyd Mandel Mitzvah Memorial Funerals. To add icing on the kosher cake, the company is also asking for unspecified damages. According to the Tribune, the lawsuit claims that when Mandel sold his funeral service in 1995, he also sold the name of the business. Now that Mandel has opened a new funeral business in his name, the company is accusing him of violating the earlier agreement.
While court documents show that Service Corp. International believes that Mandel’s new business has caused confusion and “substantial and irreparable harm,” Mandel disputes this claim, telling the Tribune, “I have the right to use my name.”
Both business owners found an appropriate outlet in which to vent their frustrations: the Tribune’s obituary section. Turns out, the funeral business is not all fun and games.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30