A federal judge in Washington has issued an order against Russia, claiming jurisdiction over what he says is a violation of international law. He insists that Russia protect items associated with the library of the Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, of righteous memory, after allegations that about a dozen pages of rare religious manuscripts under the control of the Russian State Military Archives surfaced in Israel.
      
      In a filing in December the Russian Federation was charged with not properly safeguarding the collection. Specifically, the filing said that 12 pages handwritten in the 19th century by the Third Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel, known as the Tzemach Tzedek, were taken to an expert in Jerusalem. The expert, a former university librarian, believed the documents were eventually going to be sold.
      
      U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said Thursday he will order Russia to preserve the documents and return any that already may have been removed from state archives, The Associated Press reported.
      
      With AP, Chabad.org files