Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

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.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.