Agudas Chasidei Chabad
New York religious corporation founded in 1940 by the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, described by courts as the umbrella organisation of Chabad-Lubavitch; owner of the Chabad library at 770 Eastern Parkway and claimant in the Gourary and Schneerson library cases
| Agudas Chasidei Chabad of United States
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Non-profit religious corporation (New York) |
| Founded | 25 July 1940 |
| Founder(s) | Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn |
| Headquarters | Brooklyn, New York |
| Services | Umbrella body of Chabad-Lubavitch; holds the Chabad library in trust |
| Key people | Rabbi Avraham Shemtov (chairman, as reported in 2013) |
| Remarks | Plaintiff in Agudas Chasidei Chabad v. Gourary (1985–1987) and Agudas Chasidei Chabad v. Russian Federation (2004–2026) |
Agudas Chasidei Chabad of United States (Hebrew for "Union of Chabad Hasidim"; often shortened to Agudas Chabad) is a non-profit religious corporation registered in New York. It was incorporated on 25 July 1940, a few months after the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, arrived in the United States.[1] US courts and legal commentators describe it as the umbrella organisation of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.[2] It is best known as the legal owner of the movement's central library at 770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, and as the party that brought two major lawsuits. The first, against the Rebbe's grandson Barry Gourary in 1985–87, established that the library was held in trust for the Chabad community. The second was the long US case against the Russian Federation over the Schneerson Collection in Moscow.
Founding and status
According to the US District Court for the District of Columbia, the sixth Rebbe arrived in the United States on 19 March 1940, and "On July 25, 1940, Agudas Chasidei Chabad was incorporated in New York".[1] Bazyler and Gerber write that after arriving in New York, "the sixth rebbe established Agudas Chasidei Chabad of United States as a New York religious corporation, with headquarters in Brooklyn". They describe it as "the world-wide umbrella entity for the orthodox Jewish movement called Chabad-Lubavitch".[3] The same court noted that "Long before Chabad was incorporated as a non-profit corporation under the laws of the State of New York, it was an organization of Jewish religious communities located worldwide, with origins in the Russian Empire".[1] In the Russian case the defendants argued that, because the corporation dated only from 1940, it could not have owned the Archive taken in Poland in 1939.[1]
In 2013 the Russian chief rabbi Berel Lazar referred to Rabbi Avraham Shemtov as chairman of Agudas Chasidei Chabad.[4] Its relationship to the movement's other central bodies, such as Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, is not covered here.
The Gourary case (1985–1987)
On 5 August 1985 Agudas Chasidei Chabad sued Barry S. Gourary, a grandson of the sixth Rebbe, in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. It was a "diversity action for replevin, also alleging conversion and trespass", brought "to recover some 400 books or the proceeds of their sale". Gourary, joined by his mother Hanna Gourary (the sixth Rebbe's daughter), counterclaimed that those books and the rest of the library "housed at a building at 770 Eastern Parkway, in Brooklyn, New York, owned by the plaintiff" belonged to them by inheritance.[5]
After a bench trial in December 1985, Judge Charles Sifton ruled on 6 January 1987. He found that "the library was never held by the Rebbe as personal property for his personal benefit and his private, as opposed to religious, purposes. It was held as personal property for the community's benefit and for charitable uses." He held that, on its arrival in the United States, the library "was delivered into the custody of Agudas Chabad with an express declaration that it was to be held by that corporation in trust for the benefit of the Chabad Chasidic community".[5] The court dismissed the inheritance counterclaim and granted replevin. It ordered Barry Gourary to return the books, but stayed execution pending appeal.[6]
The Second Circuit affirmed on 17 November 1987. It held that "the district court's finding of an unequivocal intent to create a charitable trust--far from being clearly erroneous--is in our view rightly decided".[6] This was a civil ruling on property and trust law. No criminal finding was made against Gourary. Chabad marks the date of the decision, 5 Tevet 5747, as the festival of Didan Natzach ("our side is victorious").[7] The finding that the library belonged to the community rather than the Rebbe's family was later relied on in the Russian litigation.[1]
The Schneerson library litigation (2004–2026)
- Main article: Schneerson library case
On 9 November 2004 Agudas Chasidei Chabad sued the Russian Federation, its Ministry of Culture, the Russian State Library and the Russian State Military Archive. It sought the return of the "Library" (books seized after 1917) and the "Archive" (papers seized by the Nazis in Poland and taken by Soviet forces in 1945).[1] The main rulings were as follows.
- 2006: the D.D.C. upheld jurisdiction over the Archive claims but not the Library claims.[1]
- 2008: the D.C. Circuit held that both claims could proceed under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act's expropriation exception.[8] The Harvard Law Review note criticised this ruling for limiting the act of state doctrine "in a way that is inconsistent with the doctrine's constitutional underpinnings".[2]
- 2009–2010: Russia withdrew from the case. On 30 July 2010 the court entered a default judgment ordering the defendants to surrender the collection.[9]
- 2013: the court held the defendants in civil contempt and imposed sanctions of "$50,000 per day". It did so over the objections of the US government.[10] Agudas Chasidei Chabad rejected Putin's transfer of part of the Library to Moscow's Jewish Museum. It said the move "does not satisfy Chabad's religious requirements or remedy Russia's unilateral seizure, retention, and claimed ownership of these sacred books".[11]
- 2024: the D.C. Circuit held that the district court "does not have—and has never had—jurisdiction over Chabad's claims against the Russian Federation". The default and sanctions judgments were therefore void as against the Federation itself.[12]
- 2026: the Supreme Court denied certiorari on 20 January 2026.[13]
Legal status: the 2010 judgment for Agudas Chasidei Chabad was a default judgment, entered after Russia stopped taking part. It was not a ruling on contested evidence. The contempt sanctions were civil, not criminal. As against the Russian Federation itself, both were later held void for lack of jurisdiction.[12]
- Editor's note: Seth M. Gerber's affiliation in the 2010 article is Bingham McCutchen, and his role, if any, in the Chabad litigation has not been verified. Agudas Chasidei Chabad's governance, officers other than the reported chairman, finances and its disputes over the 770 Eastern Parkway building have not been researched for this page.
See also
- Schneerson library case
- Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn
- Menachem Mendel Schneerson
- Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch
- Berel Lazar and the Kremlin
- Public menorahs
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Agudas Chasidei Chabad of United States v. Russian Federation, Memorandum Opinion, No. 05-01548 (RCL), D.D.C., filed 4 December 2006; reported at 466 F. Supp. 2d 6. Court record.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Agudas Chasidei Chabad of United States v. Russian Federation, 528 F.3d 934 (D.C. Cir. 2008)", recent case note, Harvard Law Review 122 (2009), pp. 1985–1992, at p. 1985. Scholarly (legal) source.
- ↑ Michael J. Bazyler and Seth M. Gerber, "Chabad's Lawsuit Against Russia: Using the Law to Recover Jewish Cultural Property", International Journal of Cultural Property 17 (2010), pp. 361–386, at pp. 363–364. Sympathetic legal-academic source (see editor's note).
- ↑ "Russian Chief Rabbi Tells Jews To Back Off on Criticizing Vladimir Putin", The Forward, 2013. Press.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Agudas Chasidei Chabad of United States v. Gourary, 650 F. Supp. 1463 (E.D.N.Y. 6 January 1987) (Sifton, J.). Court record.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Agudas Chasidei Chabad of United States v. Gourary, 833 F.2d 431 (2d Cir. 17 November 1987). Court record.
- ↑ "Hayom Yom: Tevet 5", Chabad.org. Chabad-side.
- ↑ Agudas Chasidei Chabad of United States v. Russian Federation, 528 F.3d 934 (D.C. Cir. 2008). Court record.
- ↑ Agudas Chasidei Chabad of United States v. Russian Federation, Memorandum Opinion, D.D.C., 30 July 2010; reported at 729 F. Supp. 2d 141. Court record.
- ↑ Agudas Chasidei Chabad of United States v. Russian Federation, Memorandum Opinion, D.D.C., 16 January 2013; reported at 915 F. Supp. 2d 148. Court record.
- ↑ "Russia's Transfer Of Books From The Schneerson Collection Does Not Resolve Its Dispute With Chabad", Agudas Chasidei Chabad press release via PR Newswire, 14 June 2013. Chabad-side primary source.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Agudas Chasidei Chabad of United States v. Russian Federation, No. 23-7036 (D.C. Cir. 6 August 2024), reported at 110 F.4th 242. Court record.
- ↑ "US Supreme Court declines to hear Jewish group's bid to sue Russia over seized religious texts", Reuters, 20 January 2026. Press.