The original Jericho 941 was modeled on the well-respected CZ-75 pistol designed and produced by Česká zbrojovka (CZ) of the Czech Republic and built using parts supplied by the Italian arms house Tanfoglio, which had been making their own CZ-75 clones. Using a well-tested design allowed IMI to avoid the teething problems most new pistol designs experience, and subcontracting much of the basic fabrication work to Tanfoglio allowed IMI to quickly and economically put into production a pistol that would have enough Israeli content to satisfy government contract requirements.