13 rabbinical students charged for fracas over Chabad synagogue tunnel

• Published date: 12 April 2024
• Author: LUKE TRESS/JTA
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The incident, which took place at the synagogue at 770 Eastern Parkway, drew global attention and exposed rifts in the Chabad movement over the status of the building, a symbol of the movement and its worldwide network of emissaries

Charges included criminal mischief, a felony, along with reckless endangerment and obstruction of governmental administration, which are both misdemeanors. Some defendants received multiple charges, court filings showed.

The defendants, most of whom are in their early 20s, pleaded not guilty in Brooklyn's Kings County Supreme Criminal Court.

Four more defendants were not arraigned because they are in Israel. All but one of the defendants are Israeli, and all are rabbinical students. Those remaining in New York have continued their studies since the incident, the defendants' lawyer, Levi Huebner, told the New York Jewish Week.

The charges stem from a melee that broke out at the synagogue when workers attempted to fill in the illegal excavation with cement, and not from the excavation itself, Huebner said. Some students at the scene attempted to block the repair work, leading to scuffles with police.

"I think students all over the country, sometimes they get a little bit naive," he said. "I don't really think there was any kind of criminal intent."

The defendants are set to next appear in court at the end of May.

Tunnel was part of a "wildcat effort" to expand the complex

New York City investigators said the illicit underground passageway stretched for 60 feet. The tunnel was 8 feet wide, 5 feet tall and threatened the structural stability of two buildings, the city's Department of Buildings said in January. Concerns about structural stability forced the closure of the synagogue for several days.

The synagogue adjoins the Chabad headquarters, popularly known simply as "770," a building that served as the office of the late Chabad spiritual leader Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. It was previously the home of Schneerson's father-in-law and predecessor, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn.

A small, independent group from Chabad has been pushing to expand the Chabad headquarters, believing that Schneerson, who some Chabad Hasidim believe is the messiah, instructed them to do so. Students who were at the scene told the New York Jewish Week that the tunnel had been part of a wildcat effort to expand the complex. Huebner confirmed that that was the intent.

"All they wanted to show is this is what could be done; 770 could be expanded...