Nine apprehended for building illegal synagogue tunnel in New York

Nine people from a Jewish community in New York were arrested and charged because they built a secret tunnel that connected to an old synagogue.

They clashed with the police when city officials and Chabad-Lubavitch leaders tried to shut down the tunnel.

The men are accused of causing damage, putting people in danger, and getting in the way of the government’s work.

A representative for the Chabad said that they are a “group of extreme students”.

The tunnels were made under a big street in Brooklyn, where the Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters are. The building is very important to the Jewish community in the city.

City inspectors went to the Chabad on Monday to check if the building was safe. It was an emergency inspection. Many people were worried that the secret tunnel might have harmed the well-known building.

A fight started after the police found some young men stopping the inspection and cement filling of the tunnel. Some of the men smashed through the wall of the prayer area. Those actions caused the police to take people into custody.

Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, who leads the Chabad, said thank you to the police for helping and said the community was sad about the vandalism done by a group of troublemakers.

“He said they will look into these terrible actions, and make the synagogue safe again. ”

We don’t know who made the tunnel, how it was made, or why they made it. It looks like the tunnel connects to at least one other building on the street in Brooklyn.

One person from the area told the New York Times that the men wanted to build the tunnel to make the synagogue bigger more quickly.

Some people who have gone to events at the Chabad have said that the building has been too crowded in the last few years.

Videos and pictures from inside the building on Monday showed a few young men trying to stop the tunnel from getting filled with cement.

Some people were taking wood panels off the walls and using benches to stop the police in the videos and pictures. The BBC watched a video that showed a police officer using spray to stop a fight from getting worse.

The building used to be where Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the leader of the Orthodox Jewish movement, lived. Many people visit it every year.

The rabbi is praised for guiding and bringing new life to the Hasidic religious community called Chabad-Lubavitch after it was hurt in the Holocaust. He passed away in 1994, but his headquarters is still a famous place for the Jewish religion.

The Chabad-Lubavitcher movement is big and wants to welcome all Jews, no matter how religious they are. But there are also important groups inside the movement. The arguments between different groups seemed to have caused problems in the tunnel dispute at 770 Eastern Parkway this month.

A small group of very religious people in the Chabad think Rabbi Schneerson is the Jewish Messiah, but most people in the Chabad don’t agree with this idea. The argument is said to be part of the fight in the tunnel.

The building is closed because the tunnels are still being inspected.