Credite: https://x.com/FrumTikTok/status/1744495536462328078?s=20
A group of Lubavitchers spent months, possibly years, excavating a secret passageway beneath Chabad’s famous headquarters, but encountered resistance when attempting to fill it.
The New York Police Department responded Monday to a scene at 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where Chabad students, primarily in their teens and twenties, staged a confrontation against construction workers who were supposed to be demolishing the synagogue. It was tasked with sealing a tunnel connecting to an inactive Chabad mikvah. nearby.
In video circulated by Chabad community news outlets and on social media, individuals can be seen tearing down wood paneling on the southern wall of the synagogue, revealing a vast concrete space beneath the women’s section. Several youths occupied the space, apparently trying to stop it from being filled, while others watched or recorded the incident on their phones. The exact length of the tunnel is unclear from the available footage.
According to Crownheights.info, the NYPD made 10 arrests, with video footage showing Lubavitcher-wearing men being taken away with zip-tied wrists.
The chaos in 770, which was once the residence of the late Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, the sixth Lubavitcher rebbe, reached a peak of controversy when the tunnel was discovered in early December. The incident is the latest development in a long struggle between the Chabad-Lubavitch movement and the synagogue leadership for control of the iconic building.
Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesman for the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, declined to comment on the matter.
The motivation behind building the tunnel and the strong reaction of some students to its filling on Monday morning remain unclear. Reports suggest that those responsible for digging the tunnel, which began within the past year or so, aimed to “expand” the 770, although it is unclear how the tunnel served that purpose. .
In a video posted to Crownheights.info’s Instagram in December, a dark, dirt-walled crawl space was revealed, which reportedly originated from a nearby closed women’s mikvah. Large dirt mounds blocked much of the basement.
Following the discovery of the tunnel, the leadership of the Chabad synagogue, Beis Chayeinu in 770, engaged structural engineers to assess the extent of damage and safety concerns, and ultimately decided to fill the tunnel.
According to Collive.com, the students protesting against filling the tunnel were primarily from Israel and associated with Chabad Messianism, a belief system that insists that Schneerson was the Messiah – disliked by the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. A stance.
Despite owning the property at 784-788 Eastern Parkway, the movement does not control the sanctuary beneath it. A legal dispute with the Beis Chaayinu over control of that site has continued for decades.