Russian Jews Slam Chabad Over Schneerson Trove
Leaders of Russia’s Jewish community have criticized a U.S. federal court ruling that fined Russia for refusing to hand over ancient Chasidic texts.
Rabbi Zinovy Kogan of the Russian Jewish Congress told the Itar-Tass news agency Jan. 17 that 12,000 books and 50,000 documents from the collection of Rabbi Joseph I. Schneerson, who led the Chabad-Lubavitch movement before his death in 1950, were “kept carefully and remain available to the general public” at the National State Library in Moscow.
On Jan. 16, Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. fined the Russian government $50,000 for every day that it refuses to hand over the documents. In an earlier ruling, Lamberth ruled that the materials belonged to representatives of the Chabad movement.
But Kogan challenged Chabad’s claims to the collection, saying that the books were written “long before the emergence of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.”
Chabad’s branch in Russia, which is known as the Federation of Jewish Communities, also said that the move by its U.S.-based parent organization was unwise. FJC spokesman Boruch Gorin is quoted as saying the “tactic” to use the courts to recoup the books “doesn’t stand a chance.”
U.S. Justice Department lawyer Joel McElvain told Lamberth that 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, according to the Associated Press.
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 Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward A Chicagoan wanted to protest Elon Musk — and put a swastika sticker on a Jewish man’s Tesla
-
Fast Forward NY attorney general orders car wash to stop ripping off Jews with antisemitic ‘Passover special’
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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.