NEWS
Lubavitch Evicted
From Lenin Library
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62
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 29. 1991
• •
New York (JTA) — A
group of about 25 Lubavit-
cher Chasidim were shoved
and physically ejected from
the Lenin Library in Moscow
as they tried to retrieve their
collection of some 12,000
books, which have been held
in the state library since
1921.
An elderly member of the
group, Avrom Genin, 73, a
man with only one foot, was
pushed to the floor by Rus-
sian police and so badly
bruised that he had to be
hospitalized, said Rabbi
Yehuda Krinsky, spokes-
man for the Lubavitcher
rebbe in New York, who has
been in constant touch with
the Lubavitchers in Moscow.
The group of Chasidim had
resolved to remain in the
library after being told by
staff there that "all the
librarians are on vacation
for an indeterminate time,"
recounted Rabbi Krinsky,
following his latest tele-
phone conversation with
Moscow.
The library staff had
laughed at the group, Rabbi
Krinsky said.
The library has so far
refused to comply with
several written court orders
that it turn over the entire
collection of Lubavitcher
books to the movement.
The latest order was issued
last week, although it seems
additional paperwork from
the court was issued as well.
But those orders in hand
were not enough to convince
the library to comply, Rabbi
Krinsky said.
The violence, perpetrated
by library staff and about 10
members of the police, was
witnessed by reporters, in-
cluding Francis Clines of the
New York Times, and
recorded by television
cameras, including those of
the Atlanta-based Cable
News Network.
The Lubavitchers had
been promised that Russian
President Boris Yeltsin and
newly reappointed Foreign
Minister Eduard Shevard-
nadze would become per-
sonally involved in helping
to resolve the matter on the
Lubavitchers' behalf, said
Rabbi Krinsky.
A decision was handed
down ordering the library to
immediately turn the books
over to the Lubavitch
movement in Moscow. The
court called unacceptable
the library's claim that it
owned the books because
they had been nationalized.
The decision followed a
written order issued in early
October.
The Moscow court ruled
that the books belong to the
Lubavitcher rebbe, Rabbi
Menachem Schneerson, as
successor to a preceding
Lubavitcher rebbe, Rabbi
Sholom Ber Schneersohn,
whose property the books
had been.
The Lubavitchers went to
the library on three con-
secutive days to try to
retrieve the books. On the
third night, they tried to re-
main there.
The thorny matter of the
religious library was
perhaps the last order of
business with which the late
media tycoon Robert Max-
The library has so
far refused to
comply with
several written
court orders that it
turn over the
entire collection of
Lubavitcher books
to the movement.
well dealt before his
mysterious death Nov. 5. His
last reported conversations
were with Rabbi Faivish
Vogel of London and Rabbi
Joseph Aronov, an Israeli
Lubavitch leader who has
been in Moscow for a year
trying to retrieve the books.
Other heavyweights, in-
cluding President Bush,
British Prime Minister John
Major and Italian Prime
Minister Giulio Andreotti,
had also intervened in the
matter with Soviet Presi-
dent Mikhail Gorbachev,
who agreed the books should
be turned over to the
Lubavitchers.
The group was carried out
bodily from the library, but
they plan to return, said
Rabbi Krinsky.
"What is most incom-
prehensible is that if the
Russian court system cannot
enforce its decision, then
how can the government
keep on pleading for foreign
investment?" asked Rabbi
Krinsky.
"If it invariably happens
that any deals would lead to
litigation, there is no legal
recourse. We have done
everything we could. I hope
that the final yard will not
include violent measures by
the Russian people," he said.