A rabbi in Queens showed up at a historic synagogue to say his prayers — that is, until a group of “extremist students” tore down the interior walls eventually leading to the discovery of an underground tunnel, according to Fox News Digital.
The underground space in question was allegedly created by a small group of Orthodox Hasidic students who thought they were carrying out a religious call to expand the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters located in Brooklyn.
There were reportedly six members of the small movement who began digging the tunnel in secret. The New York Post reported the dimensions of the tunnel, which was “3-foot-high, 20-foot-wide, 50-foot-long tunnel.” The members used their hands and crude instruments to dig.
The members stuffed the loose dirt they dug up into their pockets so that the sect’s leaders would not know what they were up to, according to a source within the Orthodox community.
“You’ve seen the movie ‘The Shawshank Redemption’? That’s what these young men did at first: They dug and put the dirt in their pockets,” Eitan Kalmowitz said, who is a member of the Lubavitcher community in Crown Heights.
After the men began the project, they eventually gathered enough money to hire a group of migrant workers they referred to as “Mexicans,” according to Kalmowitz. However, it is not certain if the laborers were actually from Mexico.
The hired workers reportedly lived in an abandoned building for the duration of the work. The building was located at 770 Eastern Parkway, per the report.
“The Mexicans lived in the building for three weeks during the work,” Kalmowitz said. He went on to mention that the workers did the work “correctly,” installing support beams. “They slept and ate there because it was a secret operation.”
Another member of Chabad said they were shocked by how the group of young men were able to conceal the project for as long as they did.
“I was surprised by the stealth and secrecy of it all,” a Chabad member said who did not want to be identified. “It’s incredible to me that they kept it under wraps. The yeshiva boys are very idealistic, extreme.”
A Chabad rabbi who did not want to be named said some of the students are on visas from Safed — a holy city in Israel that is generally considered the birthplace of Kabbalah, otherwise known as Jewish mysticism.
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