By COLlive reporter
Chabad will not be backing down any time soon in their fight to retrieve a disputed collection of Seforim – holy books from the Russian government.
In a statement to COLlive Thursday, Chabad’s attorney Nathan Lewin, in response to remarks by Russian President Vladimir Putin, said, “President Putin’s proposal to display the Schneerson collection in a Moscow museum is not acceptable to Chabad. Chabad is the rightful owner of the collection, and its return to the United States is the only acceptable outcome that is consistent with the clear directives of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. The collection must be returned to the Agudas Chasidei Chabad library at Chabad’s worldwide headquarters in Brooklyn, New York.”
Chabad’s statement comes in response to reports that during a visit to the new Moscow Jewish Museum on Tuesday, Putin declared that “The Schneerson Collection belongs to Russia,” referring to texts held in Russian libraries and archives, some of them confiscated by the Soviet Union from Nazi forces during World War Two.
Putin said that returning the collection to a New York-based group would set a precedent paving the way for more such claims dating back to Soviet times.
Putin claims that “if we now open a Pandora’s box and start satisfying similar requests, there will be no end to these claims,” Reuters reported.
Dispute over the Jewish books and documents claimed by Chabad adds to tensions between Moscow and Washington, which have seen ties deteriorate over human rights and security issues since Putin’s return to the Kremlin in May.
A Washington judge in January ordered Russia to pay $50,000 a day in fines for failure to adhere to a 2010 ruling to return the collection, triggering angry reaction from Moscow.
