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12 arrested as fracas breaks out over tunnel at Chabad Headquarters
(New York Jewish Week) — Police arrested 12 people at the Chabad-Lubavitch movement’s world headquarters in Crown Heights, Brooklyn on Monday as chaos broke out during a dispute over a tunnel into the building.
The fracas broke out after a cement truck was brought in to repair the building’s walls and seal off the tunnel, whose purpose and the size of the tunnel remains unclear. No injuries were reported, according to the NYPD.
The incident occurred in a busy synagogue adjoining the Hasidic movement’s headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway, the office of the late Chabad leader Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, said Chabad spokesman Motti Seligson.
The building was previously the home of Schneerson’s father-in-law and predecessor, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, and it has become a symbol of the movement and its worldwide network of emissaries.
Footage from the scene on Monday showed chaos in the interior of the synagogue. Video clips that circulated online showed a small group of young men inside a hole in the wall that appeared to lead to a cavernous space, as police kept crowds of others away.
Other videos showed young men tearing wooden panels off walls, arguing with police, being handcuffed and being removed from the building.
The arrested individuals remained in custody and charges were pending, an NYPD spokesperson told the New York Jewish Week. The building has been closed for a structural safety review.
DEVELOPING STORY:
Chaos At 770: A chaotic scene at the Chabad headquarters in Crown Heights, after Bochurim ripped wooden panels to prevent a cement truck from sealing off the recently discovered tunnels.
The NYPD are on scene, and 770 will be closed shortly to regain control. pic.twitter.com/ETvEYqtqNI
— Frum TikTok (@FrumTikTok) January 8, 2024
Seligson wrote that the dispute was caused by a group of extremist students, who broke through walls in properties adjacent to the synagogue in order to gain unauthorized access.
The fracas broke out on Monday after a cement truck was brought in to repair the walls they had damaged and block the tunnel. The students caused the ruckus when they attempted to disrupt the repairs, Seligson said in a statement on X.
Efforts to repair the walls “were disrupted by the extremists who broke through the wall to the synagogue, vandalizing the sanctuary, in an effort to preserve their unauthorized access,” Seligson wrote.
He added, “This is, obviously, deeply distressing to the Lubavitch movement, and the Jewish community worldwide.”
In an official statement from Chabad-Lubavitch Headquarters, Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky said the community was “pained by the vandalism of a group of young agitators who damaged the synagogue below Chabad Headquarters.”
“These odious actions will be investigated, and the sanctity of the synagogue will be restored,” Krinsky said.
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The post 12 arrested as fracas breaks out over tunnel at Chabad Headquarters appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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US Kicks Out South Africa’s Hamas-Linked Ambassador
Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
i24 News – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday designated the South African ambassador to Washington Ebrahim Rasool as a Persona Non Grata, branding Rasool a “race-bating politician.”
The decision comes after Rasool made the inflammatory allegation that Trump was “leading global white supremacist” movement.
A known supporter of the genocidal Palestinian group Hamas, Rasool even boasted that he owned a keffiyeh signed by late Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.
South Africa filed a claim with the International Court of Justice, alleging that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza during its ongoing war against Hamas, a charge both Israel and the US regard as slanderous and antisemitic.
The post US Kicks Out South Africa’s Hamas-Linked Ambassador first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Palestinians Report 9 Dead as IDF Strikes Drone-Operating Terror Squad in Northern Gaza
Illustrative. A drone that Israeli troops recovered in southern Israel that the military said entered Israeli airspace from the Gaza Strip two days earlier, on August 13, 2021. Photo: Israel Defense Forces.
i24 News – An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson confirmed on Saturday a strike targeting a Gazan terror squad in Beit Lahiya; Palestinian sources claimed that at least nine people were killed.
The IDF’s statement says the incident started with the identification of “two terrorists operating a drone that posed a threat to IDF troops in the area.”
Following the elimination of the two jihadists in a targeted strike, “several other terrorists gathered up the drone operating equipment and entered a vehicle,” according to the IDF.
The remainder of the terror squad was then targeted by an additional strike.
The post Palestinians Report 9 Dead as IDF Strikes Drone-Operating Terror Squad in Northern Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria: At Least 3 Dead in Blast, Cause Unclear
Illustrative. A man inspects a damaged car in Latakia, after hundreds were reportedly killed in some of the deadliest violence in 13 years of civil war, pitting loyalists of deposed President Bashar al-Assad against the country’s new Islamist rulers, Syria, March 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Haidar Mustafa
i24 News – A blast occurred in Syria’s coastal city of Latakia on Saturday, killing at least three people and leaving 12 others wounded, local media reported. The cause was unclear.
“The blast in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Latakia city has so far resulted in three deaths and 12 injured,” state news agency SANA cited provincial authorities as saying, adding that “civil defense teams and residents are still searching for others injured and missing.”
While Latakia has been the target of Israeli strikes against Hezbollah and Iranian terrorists, there were no early indications that Saturday’s incident represented an IDF attack.
The post Syria: At Least 3 Dead in Blast, Cause Unclear first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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