The Jewish Chabad movement, which dug tunnels in NYC holding a tiny soiled mattress and a high chair, has long been linked to child sex abuse.
Hirschel Pekkar, one of its most prominent members, admitted in 1991 to doing ‘things that shouldn’t be done’ to a 5-year-old girl.
But on Tuesday, the synagogue remained closed off by police barricades as New York City building safety agents inspected whether a tunnel dug without official permission may have caused structural damage to the famed property.
Officials and locals said young men in the community recently built the passage to the sanctuary in secret. When the group’s leaders tried to seal it off Monday, they staged a protest that turned violent as police moved in to make arrests.
The exact purpose and provenance of the tunnel that incited the altercation remained the subject of some debate.
A historic Brooklyn synagogue that serves as the center of an influential Hasidic Jewish movement was trashed this week during an unusual community dispute that began with the discovery of a secret underground tunnel and ended in brawl between worshippers and police.
The conflict erupted in the global headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in Crown Heights, a deeply revered Jewish site that each year receives thousands of visitors, including international students and religious leaders. Its Gothic Revival facade, immediately recognizable to adherents of the Chabad movement, has inspired dozens of replicas across the world.
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