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Pre-1860 painting of Menachem Medel Schneersohn, the Tzemach Trzedek, the Third Rabbi of Lubavitch. The Chabad-Lubavitch is a Hasidic movement in Orthodox Judaism and is the largest Jewish organization in the world today. Public domain image in USA.

Putin says dispute over Jewish manuscripts is over

Catherine Saunders-Watson
Catherine Saunders-Watson
Pre-1860 painting of Menachem Medel Schneersohn, the Tzemach Trzedek, the Third Rabbi of Lubavitch. The Chabad-Lubavitch is a Hasidic movement in Orthodox Judaism and is the largest Jewish organization in the world today. Public domain image in USA.
Pre-1860 painting of Menachem Medel Schneersohn, the Tzemach Trzedek, the Third Rabbi of Lubavitch. The Chabad-Lubavitch is a Hasidic movement in Orthodox Judaism and is the largest Jewish organization in the world today. Public domain image in USA.

MOSCOW (AP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin says he considers a dispute with the United States over an archive of Jewish manuscripts to be a dead issue.

A U.S. judge in January ordered that Russia pay $50,000 a day until it turns over the so-called Schneerson Collection of books and documents to Chabad-Lubavitch, a Hasidic movement within Orthodox Judaism headquartered in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York.

But Russia claims the collection is state property. On Thursday, Putin visited the state library branch at the Jewish Museum where some of the books are held and said, “From this moment, I consider the question of the Schneerson library to be closed.”

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Pre-1860 painting of Menachem Medel Schneersohn, the Tzemach Trzedek, the Third Rabbi of Lubavitch. The Chabad-Lubavitch is a Hasidic movement in Orthodox Judaism and is the largest Jewish organization in the world today. Public domain image in USA.
Pre-1860 painting of Menachem Medel Schneersohn, the Tzemach Trzedek, the Third Rabbi of Lubavitch. The Chabad-Lubavitch is a Hasidic movement in Orthodox Judaism and is the largest Jewish organization in the world today. Public domain image in USA.