Court banned distribution of fake leaflets

Tel Aviv District Court issued an injunction on Friday prohibiting the 'Segev' list in Tel Aviv to distribute a propaganda leaflet which is a falsification of the popular Shabbat bulletin 'Sichat Hashavu'a', which has been appearing for decades by Tzeirei Chabad.

Chabad were shocked to find that the Segev party, running for the municipality elections, printed a perfect imitation of Sichat Hashavu'a, the popular Shabbat flyer distributed in shulls with a circulation of two hundred thousand copies and has a loyal readership. The falsifiers even used the logo of Chabad, replacing the letters 'Chabad' with 'Segev'.

Many who saw the fake flyer believed that this is indeed the known Chabad Shabbat newsletter, and wondered what made it change its character. Only the sharp-eyed noticed that this is actually a perfect forgery, which uses all the formal elements of the bulletin, its regular fonts and names of articles, suiting them to the political needs of the party.

Chabad rushed to petition the District Court to immediately stop distribution of the leaflets. The Supreme Court judge, Dania Carat - Meir, accepted the petition and wrote: "A review of the two leaflets attached to the application shows that there is apparently real cause for granting the temporary order. A temporary injunction is given as in the petition."

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Aharonov, chairman of Tzeirei Chabad, said that he was shocked by the presumption to fake the veteran flyer and mislead the public: "This is posing and using the reputation of 'Sichat Hashavu'a' for party political purposes, in stark contrast to the position of 'Sichat Hashavu'a', and of the nationwide Chabad movement."

Menachem Brod, editor of Sichat Hashavua and Chabad spokesman, responded: "It's too bad that a party which purports to represent the guardians of Torah and mitzvot practices foul means of forgery and impersonation and uses the reputation of others without permission - contrary to the basic values of honesty and integrity and certainly the values of Judaism."

He said the falsifiers have gone even further and left at the bottom of the page the 'Chabad call center' with its phone number, and the words "307 Chabad Houses at your service" while Chabad center has no connection to elections, and whoever calls the center gets a clear-cut clarification that this was a forgery and that Chabad avoids any partisan identification.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!