A historic synagogue in Brooklyn became the focus of attention in New York City this week due to a clash between community members and police over the unearthing of a clandestine tunnel beneath the building.
The tunnel excavation was undertaken by a faction of extremist students associated with an ultra-Orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch group who believed it was a religious duty to expand the sanctified site.
On Monday, leaders of the group summoned cement trucks to fill in the subterranean passage. Radical students attempted to obstruct their entry into the tunnel, leading to police intervention and a confrontation with clergy. Nine individuals were subsequently taken into custody.
As reported by the New York Post, six members of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement covertly initiated the tunneling project, and Chabad authorities disavowed knowledge of its existence until its discovery.
The students manually dug the 3-foot-high, 20-foot-wide, 50-foot-long tunnel using rudimentary tools and their hands. To conceal their activities, they stuffed the excavated dirt into their pockets and later clandestinely enlisted migrant laborers to continue the work.
Eitan Kalmowitz, a Lubavitcher community member, likened the students' initial efforts to scenes from the movie 'The Shawshank Redemption,' describing how they covertly dug and concealed the dirt in their pockets. The subsequent phase involved hiring Mexican laborers, who resided in an abandoned building near the synagogue for three weeks during the secret operation.
The passageway is believed to have originated in the basement of an empty apartment building behind the headquarters, winding beneath various offices and lecture halls before connecting to the synagogue, according to Motti Seligson, a Chabad spokesperson.
The construction of the tunnel has been denounced as a rogue act of vandalism by a group of misguided individuals, with the Chabad spokesperson condemning the "extremists who broke through the wall to the synagogue, vandalizing the sanctuary, to preserve their unauthorized access."
The radical students argued that they were executing an "expansion" plan envisioned by Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the former leader of the Chabad movement. Supporters of the tunnel project asserted that the basement synagogue had long been overcrowded, prompting a push for additional space in line with the vision of Rebbe Schneerson. Some in the community subscribing to messianic beliefs maintained that Schneerson is still alive and expressed that the tunnel project aligned with his desires.
