Orthodox Jews riot in NYC synagogue following discovery of secret TUNNEL

Harriet Alexander
Daily Mail
Tue, 09 Jan 2024 06:52 UTC

The wooden walls of the synagogue are pictured being ripped apart, in scenes the rabbi said were 'mind-boggling'

Wild scenes broke out on Monday at a synagogue in Brooklyn, after construction workers arrived to fill in an illegally-dug tunnel that was being used by young Orthodox Jewish men in an attempt to link the building to a nearby ritual bath.

The chaos erupted at the Chabad Lubavitch global headquarters in Crown Heights.

In December, the rabbi discovered youths had dug tunnels beneath the building to access another property on the same street.

It remains unclear why the young men are so attached to the property they were accessing illegally - they have for years been at loggerheads with the synagogue over who owns the main property, but the appeal of the ritual bath or mikvah is unclear.

When cement diggers and construction crews showed up last night to fill the tunnel, the young men protested, throwing themselves in the way to block their efforts.

It took the NYPD to forcibly remove them. Videos of the incident were later shared on social media.

Twelve people were arrested and remain in custody. They are yet to be identified.

Members of Chabad-Lubavitch have been digging tunnels under the synagogue at 770 Eastern Parkway, in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, for many months.

The purpose of the tunnel is unclear: the website Forward.com reported it was designed to reach an abandoned women's mikvah, or ritual baths. The website said the tunnel had been dug to 'expand' the synagogue, although it was unclear how it would do so.

The tunnels were discovered in December, and the synagogue's leaders called in structural engineers to assess the damage.

On Monday, cement mixers arrived to fill the tunnels in, and the young Orthodox men reacted with fury - many of them ripping away the wooden walls hiding the entrance to the secret tunnels, and running into them to prevent them being filled.

Video shared on social media showed dozens of NYPD officers attending the site, and trying to push the irate young men back from the entrance to the tunnel.

Some of the men attempt to charge back through the tunnels, as a large crowd jeers the police.

Outside the synagogue, NYPD officers held the men back.

An NYPD officer is seen on Monday evening talking to a member of the community

One man challenges the NYPD officer, who replies: 'We don't do that in America.'

Hasidic news site COL Live reported many of the young men were from Israel.

After several hours, NYPD officers were seen bringing handcuffed men out from the tunnels. Videos also showed at least one community members using the tunnels to reach the sidewalk outside the building.

A NYPD spokesman told DailyMail.com: 'On Monday, January 8, 2024, at approximately 1530 hours, police responded to 911 calls of a disorderly group outside of 770 Eastern Parkway, within the confines of the 71 Precinct.

'Upon arrival, officers were informed that a group of individuals unlawfully entered 770 Eastern Parkway by damaging a wall.

'At this time, it is known that a number of individuals were taken into custody. Charges are pending.

'No injuries were reported as a result of this incident.'

Braun, the rabbi of the synagogue, condemned the young men.

He said they arrived at the site 'ready to destroy and deface the Holy Walls,' and urged other members of his community 'to call them out in all possible ways and strong terms.'

Braun said he was horrified they vandalized the 'shul', or synagogue.

He said to 'demolish and destroy a Shul - never mind the dangerous aspect, never mind the religious aspect - it's mind-boggling.'

Braun said the actions of the young men was 'painful' for his community.

'They need to be put in their place, put in their place, in so many meanings of the word,' he concluded.

Comment:

An important statement about the tunnels under a synagogue in Brooklyn, New York.

Walking a tightrope: Chabad's complicated relationship with Zionism.

Chabad lubavitch anti-Zionist Torah is a great danger to the Jewish community.

The synagogue where the tunnels are located belongs to the Chabad-Lubavitch community, a structure known for its support of Zionism and Israel.

In particular, Chabad-Lubavitch rabbis have secret agreements and complicated relations with Netanyahu and the Israeli state.

They are the community that supports Zionism the most in the Holy Land. In the past, they appeared to be anti-Zionism. Later, as a result of the information that emerged, it was revealed that they secretly supported Zionism.

"When I grew up in the 1970s," explains Chaim Rapoport, a British Chabad rabbi, author and scholar, "my friends to the Right - from Satmar or Brisk - would harass me by saying the Rebbe was a Zionist, whereas my friends from the Left would taunt me that the Rebbe was anti-Israel. Still today one hears both of these arguments. For me, as a Lubavitcher, I see the Rebbe as having espoused an extremely nuanced position, often walking a tightrope."

Chabad schools across the world do not mark Independence Day. They are adamantly opposed to the national anthem, "Hatikvah." Even waving an Israeli flag or having one in a Chabad center is frowned upon. Nonetheless, the strong support Chabad offers Israeli soldiers is well documented, as are the meetings of numerous Israeli heads of state with the late Chabad leader at his office in Brooklyn, who sought his counsel on internal and even security affairs.

"Throughout the years, the Rebbe received correspondence from, and was frequently visited by, senior officials in the Israeli government and Israel Defense Forces," Rapoport writes in his book The Afterlife of Scholarship. "The visitors included five of Israel's prime ministers - Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu - [who] visited the Rebbe in Brooklyn at various stages of their careers. In addition, there was a steady stream of visiting military and intelligence leaders, as well as ministers and Knesset members from the entire gamut of the Israeli political spectrum."

In fact, the Rebbe's support was not just by offering advice and blessings. As Rapoport tells The Jerusalem Post, "the Rebbe once gave $10,000 to Rabin as a contribution for building the land. So he recognized that the State of Israel was good for the Jews, and that it provided a homeland for our people in the Holy Land." SO WHY the opposition to the state's Independence Day, national anthem and flag?

"The Rebbe once met with yeshiva students in the 1960s, and they asked him point-blank if he was a Zionist," says Rapoport. "He responded: 'If Israel is a state of Jews, then I am not a Zionist, but if it's a Jewish state, then I am a Zionist.'" "The Rebbe had a problem with the government of the State of Israel," Rapoport explains, "because it was a secular government and excluded - and, in some cases, violated - Jewish law. So any religious Jew will, by definition, not be able to identify with a government, particularly in the Holy Land, which is not in keeping with the Torah."

Chabad Lubavitch has definitely always supported Zionism and Israel. Their opposition to Israel and Zionism in the past is related to Israel being secular.

Anti-Zionist Jews have always kept their distance from the Chabad Lubavitch community.

Chabad Lubavitch is not actually anti-Zionist. Pretending to be anti-Zionist is just a scam for their own political gain Zionist Israel Chabad If it becomes a state as Lubavitch wants, it will protect Israel more from the Zionists.

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