At Least 10 Arrested Amid Dispute Over New York Synagogue Secret Tunnel

NEW YORK (AP) — A group of Hasidic Jewish worshippers were arrested amid a dispute over a tunnel secretly dug into the side of a historic Brooklyn synagogue, setting off a brawl between police and those who tried to defend the makeshift passageway.

The discovery of the tunnel at the Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters in Crown Heights prompted an emergency structural inspection from the city Tuesday.

The building at 770 Eastern Parkway was once home to the movement’s leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and draws thousands of visitors each year. Its Gothic Revival facade is immediately recognizable to adherents of the Chabad movement and replicas of the revered building have been constructed all over the world.

Motti Seligson, a spokesperson for Chabad, said a “group of extremist students” had secretly broken through the walls of a vacant building behind the headquarters, creating an underground passage beneath a row of office buildings and lecture halls that eventually connected to the synagogue.

The property’s manager brought in a construction crew Monday to fix the damaged walls, leading to a standoff with those who wanted the passageway to remain.

“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,” Seligson said.

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

Video shot by witnesses showed police confronting young men standing within a hollowed out space inside a brick wall. After officers removed one of the men from the dusty crevasse, a group of onlookers can be seen