“If we’re allowed to seize the assets of Tenex, Chabad will be the only religious organization in the world that has its own nuclear power supply,” Lieberman said
The saga began in 2004 when Chabad-Lubavitch, the Brooklyn-based Hasidic movement, filed a lawsuit in US federal court to demand that Russia return the texts.
The court ruled in Chabad’s favor and — after Russia failed to comply — imposed a fine of $50,000 a day on the country. Today, Russia owes Chabad more than $165 million. Subsequent court orders have authorized Chabad to claim certain Russian assets in the amount of the fine.
But claiming those assets requires finding them first.
Known as the Schneersohn library and archive, it is a historic collection of 12,000 books and 50,000 documents named for Rabbi Joseph I. Schneersohn, who led the movement until his death in 1950. It is considered of particular sentimental value because it was amassed over 200 years and then stolen by government authorities bent on persecuting the Chabad movement and Jews in general.