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The Hasidic group has been reckoning with an internal dispute since the Rebbe died in 1994. No successor has ever been named.
Mainstream Lubavitcher leadership is committed to carrying out the Rebbe’s teachings and vision. But a smaller faction within the movement claims that the Rebbe is in fact the Messiah, and some in that group believe he never actually died. Legal disputes about the role of 770 – including whether a plaque on an adjacent building could refer to the Rebbe as deceased – have dragged on for years.
Hasidic Jewish students sit behind a breach in the wall of a synagogue that led to a tunnel.Credit: Bruce Schaff/AP
Conversations with Hasidic community members and reports in the local Hasidic press indicated that a group of messianic students were probably responsible for building the tunnel, which they believe is a way to respect the Lubavitcher Rebbe, whom they speak of in the present tense.
“They did it to expand 770 and make it bigger,” said a man who gave his name as Zalmy Grossman and said he knows some of those arrested. “They have come to fulfil the Rebbe’s wishes.”
Omri Rahamim Bahar, 22, has been studying at 770 since he arrived in New York from Israel four years ago. He said that fellow community members grew frustrated with leaders’ inaction in expanding the building to address crowding during worship. So, he said, some began to take matters into their own hands, in part by creating a tunnel from an adjacent building that leads towards the wall of the sanctuary.
After the cement truck arrived on Monday, some of the men decided to break into the sanctuary from inside the tunnel. A video showed at least one man emerging from the tunnel caked in dust to cheers from supporters.
An NYPD officer watches a video of the confrontation between police and young Hasidic men inside the Synagogue.Credit: NYT
“Of course it’s hard, and it doesn’t feel good to see the main wall of the sanctuary with a hole in it, but I know there is no other way,” Bahar said.
Videos taken from inside the building during the skirmish showed tumultuous scenes, with mostly young Hasidic men sitting in the tunnel, seemingly to try to prevent it from being filled.
Videos and photos also showed some Hasidic men prying wooden panels off walls and groups of men using large benches to physically block police from intervening and then skirmishing with officers, before one officer appeared to use some kind of spray to disperse the crowd.
News of the chaos quickly spread on social media and eventually devolved into a proliferation of antisemitic social media posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, in particular.
Building inspectors at the global headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitcher movement in New York.Credit: NYT
When Shmuel Spielman entered the sanctuary to say his evening prayers he saw “a commotion”, he said, describing a scene of a handful of young men – some of whom he recognised – breaking through the wall. “This is where the Rebbe davened,” Spielman said, using a Yiddish term for prayer. “I find it very upsetting.”
Knowing that the sanctuary would be closed in the morning, he gathered his prayer materials and arranged to meet at the home of another member of the community on Tuesday (New York time) for morning service.
He came by 770 to find out if the building had yet reopened. It had not, so he prepared to head to a large white tent that sheltered those who wished to pray outside the building.
Dov Markovitch, of Kyiv, Ukraine, prays outside the closed Synagogue.Credit: NYT
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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