Schneerson library to move to Tolerance Center in April - Ivliyev
MOSCOW. March 27 (Interfax) - The Schneerson library will start moving to the Tolerance Center in April, Russian Deputy Culture Minister Grigory Ivliyev told Interfax on Wednesday.
"We will start moving the books to the Tolerance Center in April. We intend to use the opportunities of the Jewish Museum and the Tolerance center for displaying books from the Schneerson library," he said.
Books from the Schneerson library are being prepared for public display, he said. "We are digitizing and restoring the books and are preparing them for broader use," the deputy minister said.
The Schneerson library question was raised at a recent meeting of the Presidential Council for Inter-Ethnic Relations. President Vladimir Putin said the library could not be transferred to the United States and proposed to place it at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow.
Judge Royce Lamberth in a US District Court in Washington DC ruled in August 2010 that the Hasid claims for the ancient Jewish manuscripts were grounded and their presence in Russia was illegal. The Russian Foreign Ministry said the ruling was unlawful.
It was reported on January 17, 2013, that a federal court in Washington DC ordered a daily fine of $50,000 to be levied on Russia for non-fulfillment of the ruling.
Soon after that Russian Presidential Representative for International Cultural Cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoi said the library would be handed over to the Hasid community in Moscow.
He also said that a branch of the Russian State Library at the Tolerance Museum would open soon.
