Jewish Book Day Date in the current year: December 25, 2025

Founded in 1775 by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the Chabad-Lubavitch movement is one of the most well-known in Hasidic Judaism. In 1923, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, established Agudas Chasidei Chabad as the movement’s umbrella organization.

Schneersohn was born in the Russian Empire and remained in Russia after the October Revolution and the establishment of the Soviet Union. During his life in Russia, he cared for an extensive collection of religious books and writings accumulated by previous Rebbes. The bulk of the collection was confiscated by Soviet authorities in 1924, prompting Schneersohn to dedicate himself to rebuilding his library.

After being imprisoned by communists, Schneersohn was forced to flee the Soviet Union and relocated to Poland with his library. When World War II broke out, he fled left Nazi-occupied Poland for the United States but could not take the library with him. Fortunately, the library was subsequently recovered and transported to the United States.

Upon their arrival in the United States, Schneersohn’s son-in-law and future successor, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, established a library in New York City. Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn’s library, which included several hundred rare volumes, made up a significant part of the new library’s collection.

Barry Gourary, the grandson of Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn and the nephew of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, believed he was entitled to a portion of the library as part of his inheritance. In 1984, Gourary clandestinely removed several rare volumes from the library and sold them to rare book dealers for thousands of dollars.

In response, Agudas Chasidei Chabad filed a civil lawsuit and obtained a temporary restraining order against Gourary to prevent him from removing or selling any more books. The organization later filed another civil lawsuit to retrieve the stolen books, arguing that the library belonged to the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, not the Rebbe’s family.

In 1986, a US federal court ruled in favor of the Agudas Chasidei Chabad, and the ruling was upheld on appeal in 1987. The anniversary of the second ruling, according to the Hebrew calendar, is now observed in the Chabad-Lubavitch community as Jewish Book Day. This holiday is also known as Sefarim Victory Day (the victory of the Torah books) or Didan Notzah (“Victory Is Ours”, a reference to a popular Chabad nigun).

The Chabad-Lubavitch community celebrates this landmark decision because the court case was about more than the books’ wrongful removal from the library. At stake was ownership of the entire library, including its thousands of rare volumes, letters, and artifacts, which now officially belong to the Chabad-Lubavitch community.