Endless Thread - The schism at the end of the tunnel

Episode Date: January 26, 2024

The discovery of a secret tunnel attached to a Brooklyn synagogue earlier this month quickly went viral, fueling antisemitic conspiracy theories that long predate the internet. Endless Thread host Ben Brock Johnson and producer Grace Tatter dig into what we actually know about why this group of Brooklyn yeshiva students got into extracurricular excavation.  Credits: This episode was produced by Grace Tatter and Ben Brock Johnson. Mixing and sound design by Matt Reed. Ben Brock Johnson and Grace Tatter are the co-hosts.

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WBUR Podcasts, Boston. Endless Thread producer Grace Tatter. Endless Thread host Ben Brock Johnson. You're on the tunnel beat. Yes. A shared beat. It is a shared beat. We have two tunnel episodes from Endless Thread.

It's just we're in a tunnel moment, you know? Yeah. But it's nice to be talking to you today from the safety and warmth of my own home because last time we spoke, I was calling you from the great outdoors here in central Brooklyn. And it was very cold. What's your location? I am at 77 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, New York, the world headquarters of the Khabad-Lubavich movement. I didn't see anything, which was disappointing. despite your best prompting and trying to get me to observe my surroundings.

Where's the tunnel? Is there? You can't see a tunnel from above ground, and it looks like just a normal day. No side of a tunnel? No side of a tunnel. So you didn't see evidence of the tunnel. That is the thing about secret tunnels, right? They're not easily detectable. That would kind of defeat the purpose. The secret tunnel? What was the news story that happened that led to this discussion? Okay, so a few weeks back, you sent me this out-of-the-loop Reddit post of somebody saying, what's the deal with these secret tunnels in New York?

And literally, as I received this message from you, I was texting you, I was texting you when I probably shouldn't have been texting you, which is fine. I'm always happy to receive text messages about tunnels. You can literally text me about them any time then. Perfect. Because I was actually talking about this as I got your text message. So I was like, you have texted the exact right producer. Because not only do I live very close to ground zero of this news story, I've also been obsessed with it. You had already gone deep down the rabbit hole, I guess, which is, you know, let's be honest is another word for tunnel.

On the secret tunnel being dug in the basement level of a synagogue in New York City. And you were telling your friend about it. Who was fascinated by it because it's a fascinating story, so I couldn't stop talking about it. The story involves Habad, which is one of the world's largest Hasidic movements and groups. And the word Habab is actually an acronym of three Hebrew words, meaning wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. All right, Grace. Let's get some wisdom, understanding, and knowledge about why there is a secret tunnel in Habad headquarters and why there are already a bunch of conspiracy theories and news stories about it.

Let's start with the news story, which was a brouhaha at this building, 770 Eastern Parkway, which is the world headquarters of, as we've mentioned, the Hibabad movement. This commotion occurred when a cement truck came in to fill a tunnel that had been covertly dug in the basement of the building without the owners of the headquarters even realizing it. So this is not up to code. This has not been approved by a city organization. Oh, yeah. The New York City building inspector was not happy.

As with so many living spaces in New York, something slightly under the radar may be going on here. Exactly. So what a few months ago, a neighbor had contacted the owners of the building to say, hey, I'm hearing like weird sounds coming from underground. not weird in a normal New York way, sound. Like something else is going on.

The leadership looked into it and they found this huge tunnel, this 60-foot tunnel. 60-foot. That's Shoshank Redemption level. That is like a serious tunnel situation. So the tunnel was connected from this building, from a synagogue in the basement of this building, to a deserted mikfa, which is a ritual bath for women. Again, the mikfa was deserted. It hadn't been used for like 10 years. Why do you think this went so viral? Because it really went crazy viral. Yeah. I mean, I feel like I was tickled by it. I think tunnels are so appealing to us because it's like something that's like right there, like right beneath

your feet. This idea, it just adds a little like mystery and intrigue to your life to feel like I could just be living my normal life and kids could be digging a tunnel right beneath my apartment building. who's to say. I mean, that's exciting. Is it? Is it exciting or concerning? Maybe it's right underneath my apartment building. It's concerning. So the cops showed up and we're like, listen, you can't be doing this. Yeah, you can't be digging tunnels and we got to fill it in. And this tunnel was dug by young people. I'll say men, not boys, around the ages of 18 to 22,

and they did not take this filling in well. Here's a video that someone posted online of the incident. That's a lot of work. I did a lot of work to dig this tunnel out. You're telling me you're going to fill it in now? Come on. No, I get that. But then they were like taking sledgehammers to the wall

and like kind of like making the opening, exposing the tunnel further. They were like, guys, guys, it's not a tunnel. It's not a tunnel. It's just like, it's just like, a little bit of a, it's a, it's a reading nook. See, doesn't that capture your imagination, a secret reading nook? That's the thing.

We all want a secret place to hide from the world sometimes. That is like so relatable. That is very relatable. That is true. So, yeah, the young people did not take it well. They built like barricades out of what looks like pews to me. Benches, long benches, okay. Yeah, lots of shouting and screaming.

and eventually nine of the men were arrested. Three more were charged with disorderly conduct, and the tunnel was not long for this world. It's being filled in. So very soon after this happened, the conspiracy theories began to pop up. And I sent you another post, Grace, from Reddit, from the R-slash conspiracy community.

It was basically like, don't believe anything that USA Today is saying. which is for some reason humorous to me anyway. All of these things, all like the truth is being scrubbed from the internet. USA Today, like had a reporter talk to somebody about the apparent mattresses that were supposedly part of this whole tunnel thing. But the mattresses don't exist according to USA Today. And the conspiracy people were like, don't listen to USA Today. They're erasing the evidence of the tunnels from the,

internet and the fact that this is all part of a child sex trafficking ring a la QAnon. Right. So I can say from, not that my investigation walking around was deep investigative journalism, but I did not see any mattresses that has been debunked. Also, like, there'd be lots of reasons to have a mattress. If you're building a tunnel, you need like a soft. There's a lot of reasonable explanations to use a mattress if you're building a tunnel. I don't know that. from experience. Sure, Grace, whatever you say, whatever you say. Yeah, you want to put your knees down in a way that feels comfortable and is not

like hurting your knees. I mean, these are old people considerations, but still, you start, you dig a tunnel without something to sit on or kneel on. Yeah, even if you're a young Yeshiva student. But anti-Semitism on the internet feels like it's at an all-time high right now. There's a lot of reports suggesting that it is at an all-time high. It doesn't help that the social media network formerly known as Twitter is completely unmoderated. And so it's really these theories have just flourished.

But one way to fight conspiracy theories is facts, right? So let's talk more about what we actually know about the why. Okay. Why the tunnel was Doug. after the break. At Radio Lab, we love nothing more than nerding out about science, neuroscience, chemistry. But we do also like to get into other kinds of stories, stories about policing, or politics, country music, hockey, sex, of bugs. Regardless of whether we're looking at science or not science, we bring a rigorous curiosity to get you the answers.

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Recruit new talent. Reach new audiences. Whatever your goal, we can help. Discover how the magic is made at WBUR.org slash creative studio. I have a question down memory lane for you. Did you go on any strange field trips when you were a kid? Strange field trips? Yeah.

Any like field trips that are just like very distinctive to like where you lived. I mean I, you know, I did the Washington, D.C. trip, and, you know, that was strange because of eighth-grade or hijinks, I suppose. I also went to D.C. But my most memorable field trip was when I was a junior in high school. The school I went to was all about experience-based learning and using New York City as a classroom. We took a lot of field trips around the city. But the one that I remember the most is we have this project on the concept of assimilation. And my group, I think there were six of us, was decided to go out to Crown Heights and Brooklyn to spend the afternoon with the Hibabad-Labovich community. Whoa.

So you got history here. Okay. All right. Because there were some Jewish students in my group, the rabbi we were meeting with didn't want us to take the train home on Shabbat. So we actually ended up spending the night there. So I spent like 25 hours in this very specific. In this building? I did go into the building. Yeah.

Okay. Are you familiar with Habad? No, not at all. It's like all totally alien to me. Every once in a while I'd make a mistake going from one part of Brooklyn to another part on my bike and I would by accident ride through the Hasidic neighborhood and be amazed this insular community exists in Brooklyn. But beyond that, no.

Yeah, no. I mean, it really feels like you're in kind of another. world when you're in some of these neighborhoods. So Hasidic people are ultra-Orthodox Jews. They adhere to rules and customs that most Jewish people don't. They have a very distinctive style of dress, which is how you know when you're on your bike and all of a sudden you're in one of these neighborhoods. Big round furry hats, etc. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Long black coats. And even if you've lived in New York your entire life, even if you just live a few blocks from one of these neighborhoods, it's entirely possible. You might not ever really know a Hasidic person.

because they have their own schools, their own places of worship, their own ambulance service. It really does feel like this parallel society within the city. And in this society, you know, one of the things that I noticed while living in Brooklyn was that all, I thought all the women had the same haircut and the same exact hair. And then I realized or found out that they're all wearing wigs, like they all have to wear the same wig, which was a huge surprise to me. Yeah, and there's a lot of gender segregation, right? So not only are there very strict rules for how women dress and women modesty, but there's just totally gender segregated schools. Most of the spaces are segregated. And men and women, if you're not in the same family, you're not allowed to touch. Yeah, and I guess a thing that I struggle with is somebody who lived adjacent to these neighborhoods in Brooklyn for a long time. And even still, I feel like, you know, we should all be. able to live in relative peace and harmony with each other, even if we have different belief systems and, you know, different religions and things like that. But I also started to learn a little bit

about how, you know, women can be treated in Hasida communities. And that, I feel like, is a little bit concerning. So I guess that's the thing that I worry about when looking at religious communities like this one. That's fair. I will say that there are different sex within the Hasidic community, so how women are treated or educated in one community might be very different from another, just a few blocks away. That's a good point. But the Lavavage are different than a lot of the other groups of Hasidic Jewish people in Brooklyn because they're actually a little less insular. they're known for their outreach to the broader Jewish community promote Jewish knowledge and tradition. So there are Shabbat centers all over the world on a lot of college campuses.

And maybe because of this mission of just like outreach and of promoting Jewish culture, I think that that's why, I mean, like, we really didn't know this rabbi. And he was just like, yeah, like you kids, like, you can just, why don't you just sleep over at my house with like my kids? Like, that's not actually the picture of like insularity, right? No, it's not. But yeah, when I went on this, we weren't allowed to carry our phones with us because on Shabbat, there's a prohibition on carrying things. So we were just, like, totally out of contact with everyone for 24 hours, which now I feel like teachers and parents wouldn't have gone for. But it was a different time.

We were there in October. So it was around the high holidays. And so lots of Labavitures from all over the world had gathered here because 770 Eastern Parkway at the world headquarters where this tunnel is built. is almost like a sacred space for their movement. So there are people from all over the world. And at one point, the teenage daughter of the family we were staying with took us inside. It's like it's kind of a gothic style building. It looks like something you'd seen on Harvard's campus.

Like it looks very scholarly. And it's not actually that big. Like I'm trying to think of a comparison. I don't know. From the outside, it kind of just looks like a school. and it like is maybe even smaller than like a lot of high schools are in New York City. It's not huge. It was just absolutely bursting with people.

I was up on the balcony with all of the women because, again, men and women aren't together. The girls were just trying to press as close to the window so they could see what was going on below, which was a lot of singing and dancing. And the women were singing too, but they were like so close to each other you couldn't really dance. It was kind of a mosh pit situation. So I didn't realize until this story that within Hibabad, within this building, there's actually been this long internal struggle that was actually ongoing when I was there. So the worldwide Hibabad-Lababish movement, as I keep saying, owns the building. It's their headquarters legally. But there's an offshoot of Hibad that operates another synagogue within the building.

And that's where the tunnel was dug. Aha. The leaders of Hasidic movements are called Rebis, and the last Lubavich Rebbe was highly influential. His name was Rabbi Menachim Mendel Schneerson, and he died in 1994, but he's never been replaced. Morning the death of the Lubavichur rabbi has been difficult for his followers because most of them believed he would never die. A lot of Lubavichers, including the ones who operate the synagogue in 770 where this tunnel was built, believe that the Rebbe is going to come back, that he's the Messiah. Some people even believe that the Rebbe didn't actually die and that he's still alive and in the building.

They set up his prayer lectern and clear path for him to enter and exit every prayer service. There's some strong Jesus vibes here. Resurrection, never really died, that sort of thing. Yeah, the Messianic tropes. The lawyer representing some of the students who dug the tunnel said that they thought that they were fulfilling the Rebbe's mission to make the synagogue bigger and that they were just overly enthusiastic and, quote, have beautiful ideas of the world and it doesn't exactly comport with reality, unquote. They're like, let's dig a tunnel, man. We've got to make more space for all these people coming into our congregation.

That's the idea. That's the story. Yeah. But what if you're like a new member of the congregation and they stick you in the tunnel? That doesn't sound good. Yeah, I don't know what the seating chart. the seating chart was. And the official spokesperson for Hibabad Lobovich, so again, the worldwide organization does not believe that the Rebbe was the Messiah, so are at odds with these young people.

But they said, it is a juvenile fantasy to think that a dugout 450 square foot, five foot high crawl space is some kind of grand synagogue expansion. It doesn't sound like a nice place to sit or a good plan. But yeah, so that's what we actually know, which I think is still a pretty interesting story. I think that you can have a lot of drama without getting into conspiracy. I love a schism. I love a schism, she says. Can we talk a little bit more about the conspiracy piece of this, though? Like, why all the conspiracy theories about this, do you think?

I mean, there's been anti-Semitic conspiracy theories for centuries, right? So I think that a lot of times when there's certain keywords that are just going to activate really harmful narratives. And I think, unfortunately, especially right now, tunnel Jewish, like for a lot of people on the Internet who are already often perpetuating mistruths and spreading hate, that's just like catnip to them. Yeah. There's also been a lot of discussion about the tunnel system and the Gaza Strip, right? And in addition to the definitively hateful conspiracy theories about child trafficking and blood libel, there were people drawing false comparisons between Hamas and how they use their tunnels to these young people in Brooklyn. It's a weird, tense global moment.

And I can see how people might associate things because it is kind of strange that we're all talking about tunnels right now in different parts of the world. I don't know. That is sort of like an odd association. It's a strange thing. Yeah. And maybe mistrust is kind of at an all-time high, I think, specifically with this conflict.

Like a lot of us are confused about which news sources to trust. Yeah. Secret tunnels are like a key ingredient for believing that nobody really knows what's going on because they're like, you know, they're, they're hidden. They're, underground. And so, like, there's like a literal version of that that we think about. And then there's like a whatever, a philosophical version of that that we think about. And if we're all feeling like we can't trust what we see in plain sight, what's in front of us, then we're all thinking about, in a weird way. We're all thinking about secret tunnels.

What's happening next in this story, do you think? Yeah. So like did the cement truck show up? Like is it actually filled in? Where is this going? My understanding is that the cement truck came and filled it in. It affected the structural integrity of like some of the buildings around it. But the world headquarters is fine and can still be in use.

So I guess one of my bigger questions, which now I will be paying attention to, is what's going to happen within this community. I mean, talk about like awkward roommates. They already had a schism. And now the owners got fined a bunch of money for this tunnel being built that they didn't even want to build. The passive aggressive notes left on the fridge in this building are going to be off the charts. Please refrain from digging tunnels without telling me, it's not cool. Signed other congregation.

Exactly. So every time now. I walk by there. Every time I get off the subway stop, I'll be trying to pick up on the mood, pick up on the vibes. All right. Keep us posted on the vibes. Absolutely, we'll do. Endless Thread is a production of WBUR House of Vives in Boston. This episode was produced by me, Grace Tatter, and hosted by me and... Ben Brock Johnson. Matt Reed is the sound designer making those musical tunnels. And if you want to be in touch with us about a tunnel story or some other story of any kind,

especially if it involves doing things illegally underground in New York City, please email Grace directly or you can text her at just kidding. Please email us endless thread at wbUR.org. And we'll have another tunnel story for you next week.