Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Chabad Pushes for Fine Over Russian Art Grab

The Chabad-Lubavitch movement asked a U.S. judge to fine Russia for refusing to hand over confiscated Jewish scriptures, but the U.S. Justice Department opposed the move.

According to the Associated Press, Chabad lawyer Seth Gerber last week asked Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court in Washington to fine Russia for not transferring tens of thousands of religious books and manuscripts about the group’s core teachings from its state library and military archive.

U.S. Justice Department lawyer Joel McElvain said the U.S. government has made progress, albeit “slow and halting,” on the matter. He said that fines would amount to a substantial step backward.

Lamberth ordered the institutions to give up the items in 2010, five years after Chabad sued for their return. Russia has not recognized the authority of the U.S. court and is refusing to give up the artifacts, saying they are important to Russian national heritage.

The report did not say when Lamberth, who made no ruling during last week’s session, is expected to give his decision.

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.