The illegal tunnel discovered beneath the historic Chabad-Lubavitch synagogue in Brooklyn was found to have compromised the stability of several structures surrounding the house of worship, New York City officials said on Thursday.
After city officials had to conduct an emergency inspection of the building earlier this week, an order to vacate was issued due to the potentially dangerous conditions of the other buildings.
City inspectors determined the size of the tunnel to be 60ft long and 8ft wide. It extended underneath other nearby buildings, cutting through basement walls. Inspectors also found that the stability of two single-storey buildings within the vicinity was compromised because of the tunnel.
David Maggiotto, deputy press secretary at the department of buildings, told the Guardian in an email on Wednesday that the excavation work was done without approval and permits from the agency.
“The tunnel was found to have inadequate rudimentary shoring in place, and wall openings had been created in several areas of the adjacent buildings at the basement levels,” Maggiotto said, adding that the “tunnel was found to be empty other than dirt, tools and debris from workers”.
Maggiotto said the agency’s priority is “the safety of our fellow New Yorkers” and that they have “been on site in Crown Heights since yesterday morning to investigate the illegal excavation work found underneath the buildings, and its impacts on the neighboring structures”.
Nine people were arrested in connection with the tunnel’s excavation, and citations were issued to the owners of the synagogue.
On Monday, a protest erupted when Chabad officials tried to close the openings. Some worshippers who wanted the tunnel to remain open refused to leave the scene, inciting a brawl with police.
The people allegedly responsible for creating the underground passageway were described as “extremists” and “young agitators” by Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesperson for the Chabad.
Levi Huebner, an attorney representing five of the men arrested, told the Associated Press that his clients may have suffered from a “little naivety”, but had no intention of harming the building structurally.
“I’m 100% confident they wouldn’t go near anything, do anything to disrupt the foundation of the synagogue in any way whatsoever,” Huebner said.
The reason for the tunnel’s creation remains unknown. Maggiotto said that the department of buildings “will continue to monitor the progress of this emergency stabilization work, and if necessary, we are ready to take additional actions that may be required in the interest of public safety”.
The Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters was once home to an Orthodox Jewish movement’s leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who led the Chabad-Lubavitch movement for more than four decades before his death in 1994, reinvigorating a Hassidic religious community that had been devastated by the Holocaust. Some loyal devotees to Schneerson reportedly believe he is the Messiah and that the tunnel was intended as part of the leader’s expansion plan.
The Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters remains closed.
