CROWN HEIGHTS — The footprint of the Chabad-Lubavitch Headquarters is expanding, with the religious group's purchase of a home at 760 Eastern Parkway set to be used as a library annex — making it the fifth property the organization will own between Kingston and Brooklyn avenues.
The Central Chabad Library contains 250,000 books and 100,000 letters and manuscripts, some of them dating back 600 years, according to library director Rabbi Shalom Dovber Levine, who spoke about the sale. The 3,400-square-foot building will provide much-needed additional space for their collection.
“We are now housing them in 766 and 770 [Eastern Parkway], which is very, very packed,” Levine said. “There are so many boxes unopened because there is no space.”
Chabad-Lubavitch Headquarters bought the property for $2.4 million, the Chabad-Lubavitch news site COLlive reported. The sale does not yet appear in public property records.
The sale of 760 Eastern Parkway was confirmed by the group Monday morning on their website.
“The new purchase will allow the library to further grow its collection, which has become an important resource for scholars and historians worldwide,” a statement from the Headquarters said.
The library collection was first brought to Brooklyn from Russia in 1940, by Rabbi Joseph Schneersohn, who moved the headquarters of the Chabad movement to 770 Eastern Parkway, according to the group's website. Since then, the Chabad-Lubavitch Headquarters has obtained 760, 766, 784 and 788 Eastern Parkway, Levine said.
As the new library is prepared to be opened, the original collection will be open to researchers from 12 to 5 p.m. Exhibits on selected themes from the library archives are open to the public in an exhibition space.
