The New York City Police was swift in action as it quickly took away a group of students who were trying to forcefully stop the permanent closure of a secret tunnel near the Chabad-Lubavitch Synagogue. The students also clashed with the police officers to halt the tunnel work.
A group of Jewish students within the Chabad-Lubavitch movement clashed with the New York City Police officers due to the closure of a secret tunnel. The secret tunnel leads to a mikvah - a Jewish ritual cleansing bath on Union Street from the women's section in the nearby famous Chabad-Lubavitch Synagogue. A few people who had information about the secret tunnel often made their way unauthorized into the Chabad-Lubavitch Synagogue.
The Chabad-Lubavitch Synagogue in Brooklyn is also known as Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters. The building was home to the Orthodox Jewish movement’s leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Post cases of unauthorized presence in the building, the leadership at the Jewish site decided to shut the tunnel. Despite wooden barricades temporarily closing the tunnel, miscreants managed to often get inside the tunnel by destroying the temporary blockade. On Monday, trucks carrying cement materials arrived to permanently block the secret tunnel.
However, a group of students was not pleased with the move as the permanent blockade would lead to shutting off their unauthorized access to the mikvah from the Synagogue. The Jewish students clashed with the New York City Police. Videos of the same are making rounds on social media platforms. In the clash, many students were caught by the police and taken away. However, it is not confirmed if the charges of trespassing were pressed and the students were arrested.
JUST IN: Chaos breaks out in New York City after underground tunnels were discovered under the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn.
The incident below reportedly took place to prevent a cement truck from filling the tunnels.
According to the Crown Heights Info, the… pic.twitter.com/jHotsUmHKJ
Rabbi Motti Seligson, the media director of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement said, "Some time ago, a group of extremist students broke through walls in adjacent properties to the synagogue at 784-788 Eastern Parkway, to provide them unauthorized access. Those efforts were disrupted by the extremists who broke through the wall to the synagogue, vandalizing the sanctuary, in an effort to preserve their unauthorized access. They have since been arrested and the building closed pending a structural safety review.”