Brooklyn Synagogue Complex Cleared While Illicit Tunnel Is Filled: Report

A historic Brooklyn Synagogue complex was forced to evacuate and partially shut down Thursday after members of an ultra-Orthodox group dug a tunnel connecting at least four buildings in New York City’s Crown Heights neighborhood, according to city orders first reported by the New York Post. City officials cleared one building entirely and issued partial orders to vacate two others, the Post reported—with congregants barred from returning until the structures were stabilized and the tunnel had been filled. Six young members of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement apparently dug the tunnel at the group’s world headquarters under religious leaders’ noses—literally—as a means to expand the complex’s footprint.