Nine arrested after dispute over secret tunnel in Brooklyn synagogue

Young Hasidic men clashed with the police over the secret tunnel in a historic synagogue that houses the global headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitcher movement in Brooklyn.

The tunnel ran under a historic synagogue.

Video footage has unveiled a secret underground tunnel beneath a historic Brooklyn synagogue that was built by a group of young “extremist students” of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.

The clandestine tunnel, a passageway between the headquarters of the group and another adjacent property, was first discovered in December last year after neighbours reported hearing suspicious noises coming from beneath their homes. The 20 metre long tunnel was supposedly designed to reach the abandoned men’s mikvah (ritual bathhouse) around the corner, the New York Post reports.

Video footage seen by the Post leads viewers down stairs to a dirt-filled room where a grate has been removed from the wall of the building, which is adjacent to the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarter

On Monday afternoon, a cement truck was brought in to fill the tunnel, leading to a standoff with those who wanted it to remain. The police were called, and officers found a group of men breaking through a wall of a prayer space.

A conflict broke out, leading to the arrest of nine people, according to the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.

A group of Hasidic Jewish worshippers riot against police officers who were called to inspect a secret tunnel dug under a Brooklyn Synagogue. Source: X

A statement from the Chabad-Lubavitch said that the group of “young agitators” who dug the tunnel were “primarily in the U.S. on student visas.”

Those allegedly responsible for constructing the tunnels were arrested for criminal mischief and criminal trespass, and for obstructing governmental administration.

It is the latest chapter in a decades-old fight about the direction of Chabad-Lubavitch — one of New York’s most prominent Hasidic Jewish groups. A statement from the headquarters said that the group of “young agitators” who dug the tunnel were “primarily in the US on student visas.”

“These individuals have been squatting in the synagogue and attempted to take control by demolishing walls to connect the basement to the adjacent building, intending to ‘expand’ the sanctuary,” it said. “Steps are being taken to revoke their student visas and repatriate them to their countries of origin.”

Rabbi Motti Seligson, a Lubavitcher spokesman, described those who had created the tunnel as a group of “extremist students.”

In a statement provided to the New York Post, he wrote: “This is, obviously, deeply distressing to the Lubavitch movement and the Jewish community worldwide. We hope and pray to be able to expeditiously restore the sanctity and decorum of this holy place.”

Seligson said the rebel students from within the movement had “secretly broken through the walls of vacant building behind the headquarters, creating an underground passage beneath a row of office buildings and lecture halls that eventually connected to the synagogue”.

He added that Lubavitch officials have attempted to gain proper control over the premises through the court system but that the process has “dragged on for years.”