New York law enforcement officers arrested a group of men from a Hasidic Jewish community in New York on Monday following a dispute over an illegal tunnel that was secretly dug into the side of the historic Chabad-Lubavitch synagogue. The illegal tunnel has been closed and at least 10 people were arrested.
The discovery of the tunnel led to a brawl between worshippers and the police. The conflict erupted in the global headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in Crown Heights, a deeply revered Jewish site that each year receives thousands of visitors, including international students and religious leaders, according to a report by the Associated Press.
Those who clashed with the police were the ones who created the passageway and wanted it to remain. Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesperson for the Chabad, said those who faced off with the police were a “group of extremist students”.
The Gothic Revival facade was once home to the Orthodox Jewish movement’s leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. The Hasidic Jewish community was devastated during the Holocaust and Schneerson was the leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch for more than four decades before his death in 1994.
Seligson told news outlets that the rebel students from within the movement broke through the walls of a vacant building behind the headquarters. He said the construction of the tunnel was a rogue act of vandalism committed by a group of misguided young men.
“(The) extremists who broke through the wall to the synagogue, vandalising the sanctuary, in an effort to preserve their unauthorised access,” Seligson was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
A construction crew on Monday came to fix the damaged walls but they were met with protests from the students who made the tunnel. Why the tunnel was created still remains a mystery, but a report by the UK-based Daily Mail citing local site Crown Heights Info said the tunnel led all the way to a women’s mikvah at the end of the street – several houses away.
The occupants of the women’s mikvah, however, said the tunnel connects the synagogue with an out-of-use historic men’s mikvah at 770 Eastern Parkway – the synagogue site. A mikvah is a Jewish ritual bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism. It plays a significant role in various Jewish purification rituals and is often used for spiritual or religious purposes, such as conversion or after menstruation.
The men who defended building of the tunnel argued that they were carrying out an “expansion” plan long envisioned by the former head of the Chabad movement, Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
Clashes broke out when New York Police Department (NYPD) cops came along with a construction crew and a cement truck to seal the opening. Those who backed building of the tunnel then staged a protest and ripped off the wooden siding of the synagogue.
“When they took the first person out with zip ties, that’s when the outburst happened. Almost everyone was against what they did, but as soon as people saw the handcuffs there was confusion and pushing,” Baruch Dahan, a 21-year-old studying at the synagogue, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
Those who were arrested were charged with criminal mischief and criminal trespass, and for obstructing governmental administration, according to a spokesperson for the NYPD. Footage posted to social media shows scores of onlookers, mostly young men, jeering at the NYPD’s community affairs officers. Some lifted wooden desks into the air, sending prayer books scattering. In response, an officer appeared to deploy an irritating spray to disperse the group.
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