Thread by @Badchonews

Re: a "tunnel" "under" 770
The shul is at basement level. The vandals dug beneath the ladies' balcony at the basement level, & today broke the wall dividing the main shul from their digging, attempting a merge or "expansion".

It's not a 20-meter-deep tunnel dug beneath the shul.

The Rebbe (on diff occasions throughout the years on which I cannot expand now) stressed the idea of expanding the shul. Very normal for a shul, it needs to grow. Fine. In 1992 the last expansion began with minor results.

Since then, many have called on the leaders to expand.

It hasn't happened since. Why not? That's A. beyond the scope of this parsha, B. I myself don't fully get it.

Bkitzer the extremist right faction (not all "yechi guys", within that there's extremes), stemming mainly from Israel took matters into their own hands.

At some point (many speculate during corona), they dug the "tunnel". Spoiler: it's not a tunnel. The shul as stated is basement level. To expand further, one cannot simply break the wall, there will be dirt there. So they dug out that dirt - below ground level.

This was news a few weeks ago. Since then the ladies' gallery has been closed due to safety concerns. The plan of course from the ones "in charge" (again a hard term to rly define given the many inside politics that r still beyond me) was to fill the "cavity" with cement.

And so it was. Today a cement truck came & all gazed on with curious eyes as it filled the CAVITY back up with cement.

WRONG! ThIS extreme faction - WHICH HAS EXISTED FOR A WHILE, YES, IT'S HARD TO GET HOW THEY WERE ALLOWED TO BE AROUND THIS LONG, IT'S 30+ YEARS OF HISTORY -

They said no! What will be with our expansion plan?

Again: Expanding a shul is objectively a good thing. But it must be done (A. safely and correctly and B.) BY THE SHUL, not through force. These extremists however took the Rebbe's call to expand a shul to a new dangerous level.

Words of the Rebbe never cease in practicality and are never "not relevant anymore" to some degree. But obviously there has to be seichel, not just nuke NY and expand 770 to the end of the world.

Anyway, so this group of Israeli bachurim stopped the cement truck & caused chaos.

As one group was harassing and disrupting the truck, the rest were thrown into a frenzy. This is when it went from worse to what the...

These chevra quickly went into the main shul & used tools to demolish part of the wall separating the main shul from their CAVITY they had dug.

I believe the rest is known from the vids. They managed to do a lot of damage before a big enough police force was able to come in and take control (and even then they were met with resistance).

Now the shul is locked until they can restore all that again. Will be a while prob.

In conclusion I'd like to add that while what's obvious is obvious, and damage is damage and vandalism is vandalism, this story - AS WITH EVERY SINGLE INSULAR GROUP STORY - is full of inside politics and nuance of 30 years and more.

From the expansion call (and previous successful expansions) to current ownership of 770 to the extreme right group - it'll take more than 50 Friday night meals to explain. So the facts are facts but you really can't draw any conclusions past that.

B. It's a very painful story for all Chabadniks (& possibly with the hundreds affiliated with Chabad). This is our shul, our HQ, the shul in which the Frierdiker Rebbe lived when he brought Chabd to America in 1940 and where our Rebbe for 40 years davened, farbrenged & spoke.

@DBashIdeas wrote this up very eloquently.
I'm not here to attack anyone who wants to even mention the story, not everyone becomes an antisemite, but please - be mindful when choosing language.

https://twitter.com/DBashIdeas/status/1744576314969923915?s=20

@DBashIdeas Here's a message from @MottiSeligson, a Chabad spokesperson (again: he speaks for the current leadership, no one speaks in the name of the movement as a whole but the Rebbe):

https://twitter.com/mottiseligson/status/1744591351730045419?s=20

Another thing I want to add, as someone who watched part of it in person:

I was rly tempted to post the videos I took online, I see now that @FrumTikT0k has 3 million (!) impressions & many RT etc. but I decided not to cuz I don't have to be that person

https://x.com/Badchonews/status/1744472671532765293?s=20

I guess I will end off with a sincere prayer that God Almighty send us the final redemption, that He send us the King Moshiach, & take us once & for all out of this long dark & bitter galus, & bring us back to our Holy Land with the 3rd and everlasting Holy Temple.
Moshiach now!

Appendix A.: A longer, more comprehensive thread that explains a lot of the history context and nuance and also uses more English terms (as opposed to my thread) by @kilovh

https://twitter.com/kilovh/status/1744884820780397015?t=DVuSlWAiPCZ42gsnEU6rtQ&s=19

Appendix B: another thread (another angle)

https://twitter.com/MiriamNYFL/status/1744750212730507480?s=19