There were chaotic scenes inside a synagogue in New York City on Monday night as a group of Hasidic students tried to prevent a secret tunnel from being filled in.
NYPD officers were called to the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn on Monday afternoon after "a group of individuals unlawfully entered" the building by damaging a wall, an NYPD spokesperson told Newsweek.
The group was seeking to stop construction crews filling in the tunnel, according to Jewish publication Forward.
In videos circulating on community news sources and social media, Lubavitchers can be seen ripping down the wood paneling on the south wall of the synagogue, revealing a cavernous concrete space about 20 feet wide underneath the women’s section. Several young men were sitting or standing in the space — apparently to prevent it from being filled — as scores of others watched or recorded video on their phones.
NYPD eventually made 10 arrests, according to community news outlet CrownHeights.info. Video showed several men in Hasidic dress being led out, their wrists bound with zip ties.
No injuries were reported.
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 in order to have "unauthorized access."
"Earlier [Monday], a cement truck was brought in to repair those walls" he said in a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter.
"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."
