By COLlive reporter
Israel handed back ownership of a czarist-era landmark in the heart of Jerusalem to Russia as a goodwill gesture ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Moscow.
Known as Sergei’s Courtyard, the building was built in 1890 to accommodate Russian pilgrims to the Holy Land and now houses offices of Israel’s Agriculture Ministry and the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel.
Israel seized control of it after the Soviet Union severed ties with the Jewish state following the 1967 Mideast war, AP reports. The two countries restored ties in 1991 and negotiations to return the courtyard ownership to Russia began in the 1990s.
The property has generated controversy in Israel, with hardline groups opposing any transfer of control in the holy city.
But one columnist blasted the deal for another reason. Writing in the opinion pages of Israeli daily Yedioth Aharonot, Menachem Gesheid said Netanyahu had no backbone.
“Israel didn’t request to go to international arbitration to check if (Russia’s) claim is justified, and didn’t offer a deal for them to return Jewish treasures they are holding such as the hand scripts of the Chabad Rebbes,” he wrote.
“The leaders of this country simply decided to give the Russians the ownership because they don’t know to stand up for what’s theirs,” wrote Gesheid, a Ger Chossid and journalist.
The Schneerson Library is a collection of old Jewish books and manuscripts, put together by rabbis of the Chabad Jewish community in the late 18th century in Belarus. It is one of the Jewish religious relics.
Part of the collection amassed by Lubavitcher Rebbe Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson, was nationalized by Bolsheviks in 1918 and ended up at the Russian State Library. The other part was taken out of the Soviet Union by the Rebbe who emigrated in the 1930s.
About 25,000 pages of manuscripts got into the hands of the Nazis, and were later seized by the Red Army and handed over to the Russian State Military Archive.
Lubavitchers have sought the restitution of the Schneerson collection since the late 1980s. According to some reports, at the time Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin promised to James Baker that the holy documents will be returned.
On August 6, 2010, a federal judge in Washington, Royce Lamberth, ruled that Chabad proved the legitimacy of their claims to the ancient Jewish books and manuscripts, which, in his definition, are kept at the Russian State Library and the Russian Military Archive illegally.
The Russian Foreign Ministry challenged the judgment.
Shamir was prime minister not president.
just a library!? well the rebbe obviously doesn’t share your view. however,the thought of trading an inch of ey for anything even the heilige seforim for sure would not be what therebbe wants.
Unless any of you know for a fact that someone from Lubavitch has actually reached out to brief Netanyahu on this case, you’re words are extra.
How is this person meant to know what is going on on this matter? for all he knows, the seforim might have been returned to chabad!
And if no one in Chabad reached out to him, the question is why not!
he is not a shliach or mashpiah
and maybe this is his shot across the bow to the self hating Jew Jerry wientroub who just produced a anti Israel film
“And no, he does need to grease the wheels if he wants to go into Iran. Most of the world can agree they are not nice people without him giving a building to one country. ” Wake up buddy!! no one cares if they are nice people! when russia backed the arabs in the last 3 wars they were “not nice people” as well but russia still had their back! israel is about to attack a country who has major military capabilities! so yes they need to grease the wheels! and all you people who look back at the 6… Read more »
Netanyahu is the representative of much of the Israeli public. It’s not just him that’s become ‘the zenav,’ but much of Israel.
Isn’t this ‘par for the course’ for an assimilated mentality?
Make a massive effort to teach Torah in Israel.
I started a ‘shiur’ in ‘The 7 Noahide Laws’ here in Crown Heights.
Oh give it a break. What? Mess up relations over a library?? There is politics, State of Israel issues and way over our heads. lets fix our boat first before we kvetch!!
Are you for real?? OK of course it means alot – but overall one needs to look at the WHOLE picture. Anyone thinking otherwise has his head in the sand.
remember he gave away Chevron Ir Hakodesh!!!! never forget he lied to us about not giving away land during the post Rabin elections. we can only trust Hashem not these loser politicians who are all scum!!!
You should have learned from President Shamir how to stand up and be counted as a Chabad Jew.
those of you who understand the PM for not sharing our agenda,the rebbe’s agenda is our agenda.he’s not every world leader ; he’s a yid who is the pm of ey. therefore he has a tremendous responsibility to do what is TRULLY right for klal yisoel and that can only be the rebbe’s agenda.
would negotiating for something such as security be such a shandah? Natenyahu bargained for Russia not to sell missles to Syria.
Missiles, Library, Missiles, Library. Hmmm… don’t know which one is better.
1,000 people need to sign a contract that they will name their next son Vladimir (such as was done for Alexander the Great) if Mr. Putin agrees to release the library. This is an honor never before given to any Russian Tsar/Leader. And also the yuntif to commemorate the return of the library will be named in Mr. Putin’s honor. This will ensure that his name will never be forgotten by the Jewish people. That would be my offer to him.
maybe so #5, but remember, Netanyahu is where he is because of OUR REBBE! no?
What are his calculations then? Why give up a building in Jerusalem? If we are so hard set on building settlements, why then give up land in Jerusalem?
Also, why not barter for the seforim? We took their building decades ago. They took our seforim longer ago. Easy switch.
And no, he does need to grease the wheels if he wants to go into Iran. Most of the world can agree they are not nice people without him giving a building to one country.
totally agree. The Israeli Embassy refferes many people to Basi Chabad,
Lubavitchers have to understand that not every world leader intends to exclusively promote our agenda. We shouldn’t be insulted by this, it’s just a fact of life.
to#3 and they use chabad as a 2nd embasy around the world.
He’s our friend. He’s a PM responsible for his country. He doesn’t make decisions based on our calculations, he makes them based on his, and that’s understandable.
Its amazing that a ger chossid understands and supports the lubavitch seforim.
give this guy some credit! he has been amazing for the past year or so!
when you are about to attack irans nuclear facility and you are trying to get a major ally of the arabs in the past to stay out of this one, you don’t start a fight over (what to him is just) a library!
netanyahu you are doing great keep it up!