The year’s only just begun, and it’s already been big for tunnels. There was that woman in Virginia who started to — and then was asked to stop — digging a tunnel under her house. Now, there’s a whole new tunnel dominating the news, and this time, it’s in the beautiful city of New York.


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In what’s shaping up to likely be one of the strangest stories of the year, neighbors of the 770 Eastern Parkway synagogue began hearing weird noises beginning late last year. Upon investigation, they discovered that the noises were coming from a tunnel that had allegedly been under construction for anywhere from 6 months to a year.



As we learned from our friend in Virginia, you can’t just dig tunnels under your building (“safety” and all that). And so, Chabad authorities called a cement truck to shut it all down.


However, those inside the tunnel didn’t take too kindly to that idea. This led to a back-and-forth between police and the tunnel-goers, culminating in what some are calling a “riot.”






“The incident began this afternoon as the powers that be arranged for cement trucks to come to 770 and begin filling in the tunnel,” reads a piece in CrownHeights.info. “Based on Union Street, the trucks began pumping the cement to the tunnel, but were forced to stop as the bochurim began disconnecting the hosing and vandalizing the trucks. The chaos spread from there.”




At the time of writing, no one is sure how they managed to get away with building the tunnels for so long, but there’s a general idea of what they were used for. ABC7 states that “The men, described by synagogue leaders as ‘extremist students,’ said they dug the tunnel so they could have access to the sanctuary after hours.”


There’s also been speculation that these tunnels were used to circumvent COVID restrictions, but given that most sources say these tunnels were only constructed in the past year, this is unlikely to be the case.



For now, at least 10 people have been arrested, and “the 770 downstairs shul will remain closed and off limits until an announcement is made otherwise by the Shul,” writes CrownHeights.info.


Is there anything we can learn from this? I guess the lesson is the same as our good friend in Virginia: if you’re going to build a tunnel, just get permission first.