Books (illustrative)
Books (illustrative)Israel news photo

Russia's refusal to release thousands of religious books and documents to the Jewish community is discriminatory, a United States federal judge has ruled. Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington Royce Lamberth said the religious materials are in the possession of the Russian state library and military archive “unlawfully”.

Many of the documents were confiscated during the Bolshevik revolution. Another 25,000 pages of the writers of Jewish leaders were seized by the Nazis and later retrieved by the Russian army, which claimed the papers as state property and refused to return them to the Jewish community.

Agudas Chasidei Chabad of the Chabad-Lubavich community, an orthodox Jewish group, has filed suit to have the documents returned. Under US law, a foreign nation may be charged in America in cases where property was stolen in violation of international law.

Many of the books and papers held in Russia were written by the Chabad movement's leaders. 

Former US President George H.W. Bush pushed for the return of the documents, and was told by former Russian President Boris Yeltsin that they would be returned, according to court documents. However, the documents remained in the possession of the Russian state despite Yeltsin's commitment.

“This victory is a triumph for justice for the Jewish people and others who abhor the Nazi and Soviet exploitation of victims of genocide, and the unlawful and immoral suppression of religious faith by the current Russian government,” Attorney Seth Gerber, part of the Chabad legal team, told Business Wire. Another of the attorneys termed the ruling “long overdue,” and expressed hope that Russia would comply with the verdict despite its earlier objections.