By COLlive reporter
American attorney Nathan Lewin was a guest speaker this past Shabbos at the Jewish community of Hong Kong in China.
An expert on constitutional religious freedom and rights, Lewin shared highlights of his long career with the guests at the Friday night meal and Shabbos day kiddush of Chabad of Hong Kong.
He was introduced by Rabbi Mordechai Avtzon, regional director of Chabad in Asia.
Lewin spoke about the recent cases he’s been involved with, such as the right to wear a yarmulka in the U.S. army on behalf of the Aleph Institute and the injustice done to former Postville businessman Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin.
But what the President of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers said he was most proud of was his work on the 1987 seforim case.
“Of all the cases in which I have been involved over the last five, this was, by far, the most fascinating and unique case,” he said about the battle over the ownership of the Agudas Chassidei Chabad Library in Brooklyn, NY.
Lewin spoke about the Rebbe’s “amazing attention to detail’ and how the Rebbe was “extremely realistic about the legal proceedings” to prove that the library belonged to the Chabad movement and not an individual.
He also mentioned how complimentary the late judge Charles P. Sifton was of the crowd that came on a daily basis, saying that the Lubavitcher chassidim were the best behaved crowd in a courtroom that he has ever seen.
The lawyer also mentioned the pivotal testimony of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson, wife of the Rebbe, who when asked if the holy books and manuscripts belonged to her father, the Frierdiker Rebbe, she responded that the Rebbe himself belonged to the chassidim.
Im sure you will win the beard case against the NYPD. May hashem help you succeed in allowing Jews practice religious freedom in the USA.
Wonderful…what” happening with S.M. Rubashkin?
When his father o”h, who was a very chashuver yid, came to be Menachem ovel the Rebbe זי״ע., the Rebbe thanked him for the good job that his son did and gave him brochos for all his future cases. אכי״ר