It's been more than five months since a Washington, D.C., federal judge ordered sanctions of $50,000 per day against the Russian government for refusing to turn over thousands of Jewish religious texts seized in the early 20th century. After hearing testimony Thursday morning that Russia had continued to disobey his order, U.S. District Chief Judge Royce Lamberth said the country was acting as a "scofflaw" and an "outlaw."
Agudas Chasidei Chabad of the United States sued Russia beginning in 2004 for the return of the texts, which included an estimated 12,000 books and manuscripts taken during a period of civil unrest in Russia and more than 25,000 pages of handwritten texts taken by the Soviet Red Army as war loot from the Nazis. In 2010, Lamberth ordered Russia to return the collection. After several years of noncompliance, the judge ordered civil contempt sanctions on January 16.
