New York building officials have issued emergency work orders to stabilize Lubavitch headquarters and its neighboring structures in Crown Heights after an illicit underground tunnel was discovered earlier this week.
An investigation by the city’s Department of Buildings uncovered a tunnel that was 60-foot-long, 8-foot-wide and 5-foot-high located underneath the global headquarters of Chabad Lubavitch. It extends under several buildings in the vicinity.
“As a result of this extensive investigation, we have issued emergency work orders to stabilize the buildings above the tunnel, vacate orders in parts of the buildings to ensure occupant safety, and enforcement actions against the property owners for the illegal work,” Andrew Rudansky, a spokesperson for the buildings department, said in an email to The Associated Press.
Lubavitch bochurim recently built the tunnel in secret. When the group’s leaders tried to seal it off Monday, supporters of the tunnel staged a protest that turned violent as police moved in to make arrests.
A spokesperson for the buildings department said the tunnel did not have approval and permits from the city. City inspectors found dirt, tools and debris inside.
Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesperson for Chabad, characterized the tunnel as a rogue act of vandalism committed by a group of misguided young men, and condemned 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 Lubavitcher Rebbe.
Rundansky, of the building department, said the excavation work to create the tunnel caused structural issues at two single-story buildings, resulting in orders to partially vacate them for safety reasons.
The agency also issued a full vacate order at a two-story brick building behind 770. Seligson said the building, which houses offices and a lecture hall, had been vacated prior to the city’s order.
There was inadequate and rudimentary shoring used in the tunnel, the investigation found, as well as in basement-level wall openings created in adjacent buildings.
The owners of the buildings have already engaged an architect, engineer and contractor to do the needed work, Rudansky said.
The department has also cited 770 for the illegal excavation work that created the tunnel, he said.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
(AP/YWN)
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36 Responses
Maybe hire out the meshugah mishichiste bochrim that built the tunnel to the mta to expand the mta train tunnels (and put their skills to good use)
They have an exceedingly tight deadline to meet with Women’s Kinus just 3 weeks away, and the women’s section right above the illegal tunnels:- Good luck to them meeting the deadline like Paris meeting the deadline to fix that burned bldg before the Olympics.
Social media is sizzling with antisemitic conspiracy theories about this tunnel. From outright blood libel to all kind of accusations on jews. What a shame this was allowed to happen. Too many years of vacuum in true leadership….
i am no lubavitcher , but i understand the cultural nuances, YWN your glee at posting this story is in how many clips you posted , u may cover the story.. if there is some point… but to rehash clip after clip .. is for the ny post rag not YOU
How did they do all this building without the leadership realizing until now?
Kalte, I would be frightened to take a train in such a tunnel.
For those who are upset about the anti-Semitic blood libels surrounding this incident, we are in gulas and history keeps repeating itself. The haters are mamzeirim, low class bums, engaged in all kinds of immorality, they sling mud on Jews and engage in outright lying because it makes them feel a bit better about themselves and their lifestyles.
The digging of the tunnel was exceedingly dangerous, it could’ve bought the building to collapse and people to lose their lives. Also, fighting with the police was such a chillul Hashem. Throwing tables and letting sefarim fall to the floor was a huge bezoyin.
Those in charge of 770 however, have an achreius to the community and to the students coming from Israel to learn and they need to expand the building. I am assuming those who have legal control over the building are older. Oftentimes, there are older people who are satisfied with the status quo despite having to change things according to the current reality. Not expanding 770 is a danger to people due to the overcrowding. They should give over the project to younger people who can handle a construction project if they themselves don’t want to bother with it.
The biggest issue is not that bucharim from a different culture acted like bucharim from a different culture, which is embarrassing for us American Jews, but the big issue here is the belief in the Lubavitche Rebbe as the “king moshiach” and the belief that he runs the world because “tzadfik goizer HB”H mekayim”… A tzadfik can ask Hashem to do something, but there is no guarantee Hashem will do accordingly and no one can claim tzaddikim run the world. To talk like this smacks of kefira. This ideology very much reminds me of the Christian religion and I believe that this is a very big danger of Chabad sliding down a slippery slope. Such blind belief in a person, however big a tzaddik they may be/have been, is very dangerous. In this case the belief is in a person who is not here with us, Chabadniks can now prescribe further powers to him, unchallenged from him, as we have seen that they have gone from believing that he is moshiach to attributing even higher powers that he supposedly runs the world. It is a very slippery slope that Chabad is currently on.
No doubt the Rebbe z’tl is shepping nachas. Shlechte meshugaim
They say the rebbe is god, the messiah, not dead. They pray to the rebbe. No one bats an eye. A couple of shmos mess around in the basement and it’s a schanda of the greatest proportions. What’s going on here?
You Meir G clearly don’t comprehend YWN motive in publishing this saga with so many clips:- It is לשון תועלת to implore & exhort Chabad in no uncertain terms, that they MUST, appoint an 8th Rebbe IMMEDIATELY before more fall out transpires from איש הישר בעיניו יעשה
its a real shame that years of Chabad PR went down the drain because they cannot control a couple dozen bochurim in their own yeshiva. Do they have a rosh yeshiva?
The Yeshiva World has a responsibility to cover news that relates to the frum world. It’s staff didn’t make the tunnel or tear out the wood work. That was the doing of these “students” from Israel. And YW readers want to know about it. Maybe those who don’t like the negative publicity will hold the Lubavitch leadership and the misguided “students” accountable.
ywn should be ashamed. they helped blow this to the public and now all sorts of anti-Semitic theories are around. we know you are the YESHIVA WORLD (i.e. Lakewood litvish world) but please… you jump like a lion at an opportunity to throw chabad under the bus. it is real lashon hara! it doesn’t matter if its true! any erliche yid doesn’t publish another yids embarrassment just for clicks! it portrays ALL of lubavitch as these wild bouchrim.
Btw chillul Hashem applies amongst Jews also by publicizing this story
Kiddush- I mean Chilul Lubavitch!
I am no fan of the Chabad faith, but let’s understand what happened here: some teenagers wanted to gain better access to their holy building, so they did something ill-advised and with zero intent to hurt anyone and anything.
As well, teens do not have fully-developed brains. Therefore, they are biologically prone to acting in unnecessarily foolish ways.
I would add that unofficial “expansions” and “renovations” are not unknown in Israeli “culture”. If these teens are Israeli, then that would further explain why they would choose to take this action.
Finally, can YWN edit their post to include a reference to where this is halachically defined as a Chilul Hashem?
This is nothing remotely close to an “HISTORIC CHILUL HASHEM”, very unlike the headline.
As opposed to, say, Zionism, which certainly is an unfathomable and very “HISTORIC CHILUL HASHEM”.
Yesterday, this incident was reported on THE FRONT PAGE
of THE NEW YORK POST, a newspaper with an average
print circulation of 146,649 copies, according to WikiPedia.
That front-page article made Jews look BAD!
Whoever owns Yeshiva World, is going to pay a heavy price in Shamayim for this Loshan Hara..
Your website is totally against Halacha.
chilul hashem thanks to who? TYW, all the misnagdim to found a chance to criticize chabad? or the people who called police?! (i beleive all are wrong)
last year there was a stabbing in a yeshiva in lakewood – a buchur stabed a nother bucher r”l, didn’t make as big of news all over the internet. i assume if TYW would write an article (or 3 like this case) it would make a much bigger chilul hashem in the world.
Jack596 is right. Gemara was #1 trending topic on Twitter last night. Incredibly bad look. And for what? What benefit? Just insanity. Literally millions of tweets about things in the Gemara out of context and already community is a target because of war in E’Y.
Yeshiva World:
Thank you for posting this article and videos that expose the insanity of the anti-Torah “Meshichistim”.
The Chabad “Meshichistim” should not be allowed to continue pretending they are Torah observant Jews.
Please continue posting materials that expose the Chabad “Meshichistim” as an anti-Torah, idolatrous, insane new religion.
it has been well known for years that there is tremendous hefkeirus there, lack of supervision big time. This is what happens.
Halevai the buildings above the Hamas Gaza tunnels would become destabilized and collapse instead of these buildings!
Eich naflu giborim! The difference between the Lubavitch of old and what Lubavitch has become is glaring. Total stupidity and anarchy! (Not to mention the deification of a human being…)
The department has also cited 770 for the illegal excavation work that created the tunnel, he said.
To whom did they issue the citation? Aguch and Merkos, which own the building, or “Congregation Lubavitch”, which claims to have some sort of irrevocable tenancy on the downstairs shul, and has for years prevented the owners from having any control of the space? Or did they issue it to the de facto “owners”, the Tzfatim, who have been running the place and treating it as their private property for more than 20 years now?
Aseh Me’at: How did they do all this building without the leadership realizing until now?
How should the leadership have known? It was all done secretly.
In addition, the leaders of the two corporations that actually own the building are afraid to even set foot in the downstairs shul, because they’re old men and they’ve been threatened that if they are seen there they will be beaten up. It would be pikuach nefoshos.
And the “leaders” who claim the right to run the shul are afraid of the Tzfatim too, and negotiate everything with them; whenever they do something that the Tzfatim don’t like, the Tzfatim use violence to disrupt it and stop it from happening.
Now if anyone had known this was happening they would have stopped it, but with anyone in any position of authority cowed like that, even if there had been signs of it (which there weren’t) they would not have been able to pick up on them.
“Philosopher”, you sound like the “accursed philosophers” whom the GRA condemned. Tzadik gozer vehkb”h mekayem is Torah. You are required to believe it whether it appeals to your philosophy or not. If your religion denies it then it is your religion that is not Judaism. Yes, tzaddikim run the world, and to deny it doesn’t just smack of kefira, it is kefira.
And if any of this reminds you in any way of the Xian religion, that only proves that you are just as ignorant of that religion as you are of ours, because Xians do not have any belief that is even similar to this.
As for their belief that the late LR will be Moshiach, that is not kefira at all. It’s possible that it will happen, though it’s not what I expect. At worst it’s wishful thinking. When Moshiach comes we will all see who he is, and if he is indeed the LR then great! If he is not, then also great! Either way, the LR will surely be one of the first tzadikim to come back to life, so he can tell us whether the Moshiach is genuine. And if he follows that person then surely all his chassidim will do the same.
Besalel, to conflate G-d with the Messiah, as you do here, that is Xianity. Maybe philosopher should be worried about you instead of about Chabad. Moshiach Ben Dovid is not a god. He will be a tzadik, and tzadikim are botel to Hashem’s will, and so can be addressed as though speaking directly to Hashem, but they are not Him. On the contrary, the only reason it’s OK to speak to them as to Him is because they have no metzius of their own. That’s the exact opposite of deifying them, and the exact opposite of Xianity.
Milhouse, there are some who claim he is Mashiach and some who claim he is god. They claim that since learning Torah gives you a chelek elokus then if you learn a lot of it like the rebbe did you become part god. But I think you already knew that.
Millhouse, I said they believe the Rebbe runs the world because “tzaddik goizer HKB”H mekayim”. That posek does NOT mean that tzaddikim run the world! Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu “no” a few times. To say that Moshe Rabbeonu rules the world would be kefira. So Hashem did not fulfill Moshe Rabbeinu’s every request and neither does Moshe Rabbeinu control the world, kol shekein the Lubavitche Rebbe does not run the world! If the Lubavitche Rebbe would run the world I have no doubt moshiach would be here already… But the world was run and is run by an all-knowing God whom no one bosses around. God knows what is best for the universe and humankind, no human has the power and understanding to “control the world” however great a tzaddik he was/is.
What you are doing is like what the Christians did/are. They take a verse from here and there from Tanach that fits there ideology and they use that as “proof” that their religion is “the truth” even though it totally contradicts the Torah. You cannot take a verse that fits your hashkafa and declare that that is Yiddishkeit . You need to look in context and what overall the Torah says which in this case it is kefira to say the Lubavitche Rebbe runs the world! There were many tzaddikim who had different shittos than the Lubavitche Rebbe, can you imagine them all “running the world”? The world would collide….only Hashem runs the world forever and ever!!!!
And this is why I say believing in this ideology is similar to believing in Christianity. First they believed in Yoshke as the moshiach then he became their god together with the “father” and “holy spirit”…. First the Lubavitche Moshiachisten said the Rebbe is moshiach then they subscribed to him powers that only Hashem has, but of course it still has to conform somewhat to the Torah so he rules “together with Hashem” because Hashem does what he is goizer…kefira!
Chassidim coming out of sewers in hats and jackets is the least weird thing to come out of 770 in the last 35 years.
Chabadskers have to come out and excommunicate the meshichists. Should have been done LONG LONG ago. Until that happens, they do not have much credibility in the larger frum community imo. Come on guys, these wackos are messing up your reputation, what’s the silence? If there is any Lubavitcher on this forum (a real one, not a fake BT that calls themself Lubavitch but keeps on fressing cholov stam) then please let me know why there has never been any serious attempt to get rid of the meshichists…
Now that the names of the culprits have been released & made public, make sure every Shadchan[it] has a copy of all these names on their files:- Certainly Chabad Shadchonim, but actually all Shadchonim as well as all dating sites.
when i saw headlines i was shocked at ywn. but after seeing the videos i agree with them! we must show everyone what happens when we don’t have leaders. shameful. These are not just teenagers. they are people who do whatever they want and blame on their dead rebbe.
All the anti-Chabad remarks are accurate. Lubavichers view the Rebbe as Moshiach/god or god/Moshiach because he told them he is. Appointing an 8th Rebbe would lead to a civil war but maybe that’s what needs to happen
thanks all misnagdim for your opinions on what chabad should or should not do. as if this only happens in lubavitch,
imagine a non jew saying that because a rebbi in cheder was cought doing something inappropriate to a kid, the jews should chas vishalom close all chedarim and send their kids to public school!
btw we have rabbonim just like lakewood, so why do we need to appoint a rebbe? (as if a rebbe is someone who can be appointed! (shows how much you know about chassidus chabad, go learn tanya and come back)
To yanky1998.
This past Motzi Shabbos Zev Brenner interviewed several Lubavichers because of the tunnel story. Zev noted that there’s a dispute between the meshichists and regular Lubavichers. One of his guests set him straight, ‘There’s no such thing as a Meshichist. Every Lubavicher believes the Rebbe is Moshiach.” And we can add, “Every Lubavicher believes tje Rebbe is god and that he runs the world” And this is why Chabadism is not Judaism.