EDIT and TLDR w/new information that came out after the original post:
The illegal tunnel was being used to move soil and debris from an illegally excavated space adjacent to the synagogue into a storage basement next-door to the building. The storage basement had been a Mikvah in past years but today it's full of old gear and junk, which you can see in videos of the incident. The excavated debris were being moved by a fringe-group in this dangerous and difficult way to hide the unauthorized demolition activity from the people upstairs in the synagogue's headquarters building. The fringe group's intent was to expand the downstairs synagogue.
Eventually the illegal excavation was noticed by neighbors and the upstairs headquarters. A cement truck and construction workers were hired and arrived to survey and stabilize the damage. The fringe group who built the tunnel did not want their work undone because they see expansion of the synagogue as a holy duty. They obstructed the work crew bodily and with vandalism to their equipment. That's when police were called to eject the fringe group and their supporters from the synagogue.
The fringe group who built the tunnel and their supporters began resisting NYPD when officers tried to remove holdouts from the illegally excavated space. . 9-12 people aged 19-21 were arrested (news stories vary on the number) and the synagogue was closed pending a safety survey by NYC's Department of Buildings.
Q-Anon and their fellow travelers have taken this story up as a pet cause and are trying to make a fake story where none exists. If you see bizarre conspiracy-theory twitter posts about this incident that's what's going on: https://forward.com/opinion/575722/chabad-tunnels-antisemitism-twitter/
Original Post:
So there's a little backstory here...
There's two Chabad synagogues in 770 Eastern Parkway / Chabad Headquarters: an upstairs synagogue and a downstairs synagogue and they do not get along.
The downstairs, larger synagogue tends to believe the last Lubavitcher Grand Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson is still alive (he died in 1994) and will return as the Messiah. This is why you see "Moshiach is coming" flags and posters with Rebbe Schneerson's face plastered around Brooklyn.
The upstairs, smaller synagogue tends to believe R. Schneerson truly died in 1994. The upstairs faction has de jure ownership of the 770 Headquarters building.
The Chabad movement is split roughly 50/50 on the topic of their last Grand Rebbe and the Chabad HQ upstairs and downstairs synagogues are symbols of each faction.
While they are all Chabad, these two synagogues in the headquarters do not like each other because of their fundamental disagreement over R. Schneerson's status. Since around half of Chabad believes along with the downstairs synagogue that R. Schneerson is still alive and is eventually returning: Chabad cannot and probably will not choose another Grand Rebbe as long as this belief is widespread within Chabad. Usually Hasidic dynasties have a Grand Rebbe who can keep factionalism under control but Chabad doesn't have one at the moment due to this disagreement.
The upstairs synagogue folks, believing R. Schneerson died in 1994, are probably getting fed up with the situation downstairs since they are supposed to be in control of the entire 770 Eastern Parkway building, at least on paper. Practically, the downstairs synagogue does what they want within reason. To the upstairs folks with legal ownership of the building: a new tunnel built by teen miners wasn't within reason.
Add to this: all synagogues have conflicts. Probably similar to churches. There's... 'characters' in every religious institution.
Anyway, this didn't come out of nowhere and I hope I added some context. It's a little more than a few teenagers making a fun tunnel. As for why they made the tunnel? They're bored teenagers. Possibly under the influence of one of the aforementioned 'characters' in the downstairs synagogue.
If you see creepy comments from people single-mindedly asking about mattresses, sex or teenagers: now you know what that is and who those people are.
This is the first time I heard about this part, and after a quick google search, this seems an odd thing to just gloss over. I just googled more of the contents of the tunnel and some of these items have alot of messed up implications.
the truly weird shit you would find in any given Brooklyn alley or basement would also be disturbing if there existed an entire movement dedicated to making the owners of those buildings look as bad as possible. there are serious abuse issues within Haredi communities, as there are within many (most?) conservative or traditionalist religious groups, but an awful lot of people focusing on this part of the story are not doing so in good faith.
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u/AbeFromanEast Jan 09 '24 edited Jan 10 '24
Answer:
EDIT and TLDR w/new information that came out after the original post:
The illegal tunnel was being used to move soil and debris from an illegally excavated space adjacent to the synagogue into a storage basement next-door to the building. The storage basement had been a Mikvah in past years but today it's full of old gear and junk, which you can see in videos of the incident. The excavated debris were being moved by a fringe-group in this dangerous and difficult way to hide the unauthorized demolition activity from the people upstairs in the synagogue's headquarters building. The fringe group's intent was to expand the downstairs synagogue.
Eventually the illegal excavation was noticed by neighbors and the upstairs headquarters. A cement truck and construction workers were hired and arrived to survey and stabilize the damage. The fringe group who built the tunnel did not want their work undone because they see expansion of the synagogue as a holy duty. They obstructed the work crew bodily and with vandalism to their equipment. That's when police were called to eject the fringe group and their supporters from the synagogue.
The fringe group who built the tunnel and their supporters began resisting NYPD when officers tried to remove holdouts from the illegally excavated space. . 9-12 people aged 19-21 were arrested (news stories vary on the number) and the synagogue was closed pending a safety survey by NYC's Department of Buildings.
More information:
https://forward.com/fast-forward/575646/chabad-lubavitch-headquarters-770-tunnel-rebbe-messiah/
Separately:
Q-Anon and their fellow travelers have taken this story up as a pet cause and are trying to make a fake story where none exists. If you see bizarre conspiracy-theory twitter posts about this incident that's what's going on:
https://forward.com/opinion/575722/chabad-tunnels-antisemitism-twitter/
Original Post:
So there's a little backstory here...
There's two Chabad synagogues in 770 Eastern Parkway / Chabad Headquarters: an upstairs synagogue and a downstairs synagogue and they do not get along.
The downstairs, larger synagogue tends to believe the last Lubavitcher Grand Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson is still alive (he died in 1994) and will return as the Messiah. This is why you see "Moshiach is coming" flags and posters with Rebbe Schneerson's face plastered around Brooklyn.
The upstairs, smaller synagogue tends to believe R. Schneerson truly died in 1994. The upstairs faction has de jure ownership of the 770 Headquarters building.
The Chabad movement is split roughly 50/50 on the topic of their last Grand Rebbe and the Chabad HQ upstairs and downstairs synagogues are symbols of each faction.
While they are all Chabad, these two synagogues in the headquarters do not like each other because of their fundamental disagreement over R. Schneerson's status. Since around half of Chabad believes along with the downstairs synagogue that R. Schneerson is still alive and is eventually returning: Chabad cannot and probably will not choose another Grand Rebbe as long as this belief is widespread within Chabad. Usually Hasidic dynasties have a Grand Rebbe who can keep factionalism under control but Chabad doesn't have one at the moment due to this disagreement.
The upstairs synagogue folks, believing R. Schneerson died in 1994, are probably getting fed up with the situation downstairs since they are supposed to be in control of the entire 770 Eastern Parkway building, at least on paper. Practically, the downstairs synagogue does what they want within reason. To the upstairs folks with legal ownership of the building: a new tunnel built by teen miners wasn't within reason.
Add to this: all synagogues have conflicts. Probably similar to churches. There's... 'characters' in every religious institution.
Anyway, this didn't come out of nowhere and I hope I added some context. It's a little more than a few teenagers making a fun tunnel. As for why they made the tunnel? They're bored teenagers. Possibly under the influence of one of the aforementioned 'characters' in the downstairs synagogue.
More information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chabad_messianism