Viral post errs on nature, contents of tunnel near New York synagogue | Fact check

Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY
Updated ·5 min read

Editor's Note: This story was updated Jan. 17 to add comments from the synagogue and descriptions of tunnel videos that circulated on social media. This update does not affect the rating for this item.

The claim: Old mattresses and booster seats were found in tunnels beneath New York City synagogue

A Jan. 10 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows a screenshot of a post on X, formerly Twitter, by the same user about a tunnel discovered in New York.

"A synagogue in New York City was discovered to have underground tunnels beneath it," reads part of the X post. "There were old, stained mattresses inside along with booster chairs for young kids."

The Instagram post garnered more than 13,000 likes in two days, while the X post accumulated more than 9,000 likes in the same period. Similar versions of the claim were shared on Instagram and Facebook.

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Our rating: False

The description in this post paints a false picture of the tunnel discovery, which was reported to police by synagogue officials. City officials said there was one tunnel, not a series of tunnels. It was adjacent to the synagogue, not under it. Mattresses shown in a viral video came from behind wood paneling inside the synagogue, not from the tunnel. An unverified video shows what appears to be a high chair, but it shows only one such seat, and it was located amid trash, clutter and dirt in a basement room, not in a tunnel.

Confrontation began over attempt to fill in tunnel

The claim stems from a tunnel that was found near a New York synagogue that is the central headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, a Hasidic Judaism movement dating back 250 years with locations in more than 50 countries. The tunnel built by a rogue group attempting to connect the synagogue to an office building next door and had broken through a wall of the office building, the Times of Israel reported.

The Times of Israel said reports of an unauthorized tunnel surfaced in December, but the incident came to a head Jan. 8 when the group responsible for the unauthorized construction realized a plan to fill the tunnel with cement would block their attempt to gain access to the headquarters and "ripped down wood paneling in the crowded subterranean floor of the synagogue." The chaotic confrontation ultimately led to nine arrests.

That description is consistent with videos that emerged online showing a group of men breaking down a paneled wall and pulling out several mattresses. The room shown in the video matches images of the Chabad-Lubavitch synagogue published by the Times of Israel and Alamy.

Those videos and the secretive nature of the tunnel sparked an array of conspiracy theories online. But the footage doesn't align with the claim in the Instagram post.

The video shows mattresses being pulled out of the wall paneling of the synagogue basement, not the tunnel.

Ryan Degan, a spokesperson for the New York Department of Buildings, said the tunnel was next to the synagogue, "but the tunnel was not connected to that building."

Degan said investigators found the tunnel's excavation site to be empty except for dirt, debris from workers and "hand tools like shovels." In response to the video, Degan reiterated that no mattresses were found at the scene when investigators from his department arrived.

There are no credible news reports of mattresses or booster seats being discovered inside the tunnel.

Several news outlets, including local New York outlet Crownheights.info, shared a video that claims to show the tunnel. In it, the cameraperson walks through a cluttered storage area and down stairs to a basement, where there are large piles of dirt and debris including a chair, clothing, construction materials, boxes and what appears to be a children's high chair. At the far end of that room is a hole in the wall that leads to a tunnel. USA TODAY could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.

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Yaacov Behrman, a spokesperson for the synagogue headquarters, told USA TODAY that claims about mattresses and booster seats connecting to anything nefarious at the synagogue are false. He noted that police were summoned to the site by synagogue officials.

"A group of reckless individuals attempted to construct an illegal cellar adjacent to the synagogue," Behrman said in an email. "We contacted the NYPD to intervene and prevent further vandalism to the property."

He added, "The police came down at our request, and I can assure you that if there was anything suspicious, the police would have found it and publicized it. We would have certainly pursued and investigated the matter as well."

As of Jan. 17, there have been no announcements from police or prosecutors about any allegations or charges connected to the tunnel aside from the nine men arrested after the Jan. 8 confrontation. The Associated Press reported nine men between the ages of 19 and 22 were arrested on charges that included criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and obstructing governmental administration.

Degan said investigators found one 60-foot linear underground tunnel, not a series of tunnels, illegally excavated beneath a single-story extension behind 784 and 786 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn.

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Degan attached an aerial screenshot of Google Maps to illustrate the location of the underground passageway (marked in yellow).

USA TODAY reached out to the New York Police Department and the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Viral post errs on nature of tunnel near NY synagogue | Fact check

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