Secret Tunnel In NYC Synagogue Leads To Brawl Between Police And Worshippers

Speaking of alleged tun­nels in Gaza. It is essen­tial to under­stand the con­text and the con­no­ta­tions attached to the word ter­ror­ism. Terrorism in the Western world applies to peo­ple of dif­fer­ent reli­gions oth­er than Christianity using vio­lent means to defend their posi­tion. It also applies to peo­ple of col­or who fight against oppres­sion. Given the same set of cir­cum­stances, white Christians using the same meth­ods are not char­ac­ter­ized as terrorists.
For exam­ple, Nelson Mandela and oth­ers were brand­ed ter­ror­ists by the Western pow­ers as they waged a right­eous resis­tance to white oppres­sion- so too are the Palestinian groups fight­ing zion­ist ter­ror­ism in Palestine. At the same time, the zion­ists are seen as jus­ti­fied in their ter­ror, which is hun­dreds of times greater.
In the two instances in South Africa and Palestine, the sit­u­a­tion is even more hyp­o­crit­i­cal as both oppressed par­ties had and have every right to use what­ev­er means nec­es­sary to expel the invaders. (MB)
Anyway, as con­se­quen­tial as this was, did you see it on the tele­vi­sion news­casts? Now imag­ine a Black or Muslim group doing exact­ly the very same thing and envi­sion the faux out­rage and out­cry.

A his­toric Brooklyn syn­a­gogue that serves as the cen­ter of an influ­en­tial Hasidic Jewish move­ment was trashed this week dur­ing an unusu­al com­mu­ni­ty dis­pute that began with the dis­cov­ery of a secret under­ground tun­nel and end­ed in brawl between wor­ship­pers and 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. Its Gothic Revival façade, imme­di­ate­ly rec­og­niz­able to adher­ents of the Chabad move­ment, has inspired dozens of repli­cas across the world.

But on Tuesday, the syn­a­gogue remained closed off by police bar­ri­cades as New York City build­ing safe­ty agents inspect­ed whether a tun­nel dug with­out offi­cial per­mis­sion may have caused struc­tur­al dam­age to the famed property.

Officials and locals said young men in the com­mu­ni­ty recent­ly built the pas­sage to the sanc­tu­ary in secret. When the group’s lead­ers tried to seal it off Monday, they staged a protest that turned vio­lent as police moved in to make arrests.

The exact pur­pose and prove­nance of the tun­nel that incit­ed the alter­ca­tion remained the sub­ject of some debate.

The pas­sage­way is believed to have start­ed in the base­ment of an emp­ty apart­ment build­ing behind the head­quar­ters, snaking under a series of offices and lec­ture halls before even­tu­al­ly con­nect­ing to the syn­a­gogue, accord­ing to Motti Seligson, a spokesper­son for Chabad.

He char­ac­ter­ized its con­struc­tion as a rogue act of van­dal­ism com­mit­ted by a group of mis­guid­ed young men, con­demn­ing the “extrem­ists who broke through the wall to the syn­a­gogue, van­dal­iz­ing the sanc­tu­ary, in an effort to pre­serve their unau­tho­rized access.”

Those who sup­port­ed the tun­nel, mean­while, said they were car­ry­ing out an “expan­sion” plan long envi­sioned by the for­mer head of the Chabad move­ment, Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

Schneerson led the Chabad-Lubavitch for more than four decades before his death in 1994, rein­vig­o­rat­ing a Hasidic reli­gious com­mu­ni­ty that had been dev­as­tat­ed by the Holocaust.

Supporters of the expan­sion said the base­ment syn­a­gogue had long been over­crowd­ed, prompt­ing a push to annex addi­tion­al space that some in the com­mu­ni­ty felt was tak­ing too long. Many of those sup­port­ers sub­scribe to the mes­sian­ic belief that Schneerson is still alive.

“That’s what the rab­bi wants, that’s what every­body wants,” said Zalmy Grossman, a 21-year-old Brooklyn res­i­dent. He said the tun­nel project began late last year as a way to con­nect the syn­a­gogue with “the whole emp­ty space” behind it.

Chabad lead­ers declined to say when they dis­cov­ered the under­ground con­nec­tion. But sev­er­al wor­ship­pers said word of the tunnel’s exis­tence had spread through the com­mu­ni­ty in recent weeks.

The sit­u­a­tion came to a head Monday, when a cement truck arrived to seal the open­ing. Proponents of the tun­nel then staged a protest and ripped off the wood­en sid­ing of the synagogue.

A police depart­ment spokesper­son said offi­cers were called to the build­ing in the after­noon to respond to a dis­or­der­ly group that was tres­pass­ing and dam­ag­ing a wall.

For sev­er­al hours, police plead­ed with the young men to leave the entrance to the tun­nel, accord­ing to wit­ness­es. After they refused, the offi­cers cov­ered the area with a white cur­tain and entered the dusty crevasse with zip ties to detain the protesters.

“When they took the first per­son out with zip ties, that’s when the out­burst hap­pened,” said Baruch Dahan, a 21-year-old study­ing at the syn­a­gogue who video­taped the con­gre­gants fight­ing. “Almost every­one was against what they did, but as soon as peo­ple saw the hand­cuffs there was con­fu­sion and pushing.”

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.

Nine peo­ple — between the ages of 19 and 22 — were ulti­mate­ly arrest­ed on charges that includ­ed crim­i­nal mis­chief, reck­less endan­ger­ment, and obstruct­ing gov­ern­men­tal admin­is­tra­tion, accord­ing to police. Another three received sum­mons­es for dis­or­der­ly conduct.

A spokesper­son for the Department of Buildings said the inspec­tion results were pend­ing on Tuesday evening.

While the build­ing remained closed, some wor­ship­pers com­plet­ed their prayers out­side in the driz­zling rain.

“The com­mu­ni­ty feels ter­ri­ble,” Dahan said. “It’s a dis­grace, instead of expand­ing, they destroyed.”