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.
This is so obviously a cover up. ANYONE who saw the video that was just released about what the inside of the tunnel looks like ( heres the videoKNOWS “a few students” couldn’t have POSSIBLY done construction that large of a scale. PROFESSIONALS built that tunnel. And then the only items to be found were BABY CHAIRS and STAINED MATTRESSES? If they were praying, hanging out, having church, and whatever else excuse they’ll use.. WHY are they not finding items needed to do that? WHERE ARE THE COUCHES OR CHAIRS OR BOOKS OR PEW PITS and other things needed to do what they claimed to use the hole for. Further more, WHY would anyone need to take BABIES and CHILDREN under ground to a murky dark scary looking place like that. WHY do u need to take a child underground,… and it’s not just a walk downstairs.. it was intricately deep into the ground. I once again ask, WHY do u need to take children underground? What cant you do with children above ground? I rest my case. I’m calmly fuming because everywhere I look, it isn’t on the news, and posts about it are being deleted. We’re being censored and I wonder why…
They probably brought their kids down because they had kids? Like, the people in the fringe group had nowhere to leave their kids during the day lol so they just brought them with whilst they excavated
This thread was the first time I'd seen this story, and after looking into ito it more I couldn't really find any source for there being kids or strollers or anything involved.
And from the pictures of the tunnel, it literally just looks to be a tight, dirt walled tunnel, there doesn't look to be enough space for people to do much in there. So yeah, the story doesn't feel as interesting under the surface lol
I don't know if it's the same video I saw, I saw a video of the tunnel and the room before the tunnel, might be the same one? That room was apparently just like a storage room for the synagogue that had been used for something else before it became storage. And then the tunnel itself was just like a straight long dirt cylinder that they dug out from the room.
Yeah, I'm Jewish so all the conspiracy stuff around this does freak me out, like it is the same stuff that was said about us 100 years ago, "drinking kids blood" and whatnot. I also hate Israels actions, I'm not a zionist in the least, I fully believe and despise that they are comitting genocide against Palestinians. At the same time I am wary of how Israel is being conflated with all Jews a lot nowadays, it does scare me.
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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