NYC issues vacate orders to stabilize historic Jewish sites following discovery of 60-foot tunnel

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — New York building officials have issued emergency work orders to stabilize buildings around a historic Brooklyn synagogue where a secret tunnel was revealed earlier this week. The city’s investigation into the extent of damage at the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic Jewish movement in Crown Heights found a 60-foot (18.3-meter) long, 8-foot (2.4-meter) wide, 5-foot (1.5-meter) high tunnel located underneath several buildings on Eastern Parkway. Officials and locals say young men in the community dug the tunnel in secret. When the group’s leaders tried to seal it off Monday, those men staged a protest that turned violent as police moved in to make arrests.