New York City authorities discovered an unauthorized tunnel under a Brooklyn synagogue in January 2024 and charged nine individuals after a skirmish, but claims that it was connected to or near the home of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein are false. The 60-foot passage is miles from the late sex offender’s former home, and prosecutors have not filed any trafficking charges related to the case.
“The jewish tunnels are all connected to jeffrey epstein mansion in New York,” says a January 15, 2024 Instagram post with footage from the raid on the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters.
A similar post on X, formerly Twitter, says: “zionists used ‘the secret tunnel’ in Brooklyn, Newyork for ‘Child Trafficking’ below under their Jewish Temple. The Newyork Police in Brooklyn busted the racket after filing continuous reports and sealed the temple now.”
Other posts circulated on Rumble, Facebook and TikTok. Some claim the tunnel was “less than a mile” from the Epstein residence and that a blood-stained mattress was found at the scene, linking to an image that appears to have been generated by artificial intelligence.
Police were called January 8 to the headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Chabad Lubavitch movement, where they found a group of men breaking through a wall to a tunnel.
Officers took 12 people into custody after a fight, a New York Police Department spokesperson said in a January 23 email. Nine were charged with offenses such as criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and obstruction of government administration.
Epstein, meanwhile, in 2019 died from suicide in jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges involving minors. He had ties to politicians, celebrities and other high-profile figures.
But posts suggesting a link between the convicted sex offender, who had a residence on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and the synagogue tunnel are unfounded.
The passage extended just 60 feet — and officials found no evidence of child sex trafficking.
“The Chabad is in central Brooklyn and the only tunnel we found there connected with a neighboring building,” said Ryan Degan, deputy press secretary for the New York City Department of Buildings, in a January 23, 2024 email.
“A tunnel connecting central Brooklyn with the Upper East Side would stretch for about 10 miles and need to be built under the East River. Needless to say, we found no such tunnel.”
Google Maps directions show walking from the Chabad headquarters to the former Epstein residence on East 71st Street would take more than three hours.
Degan said the tunnel was constructed without approval or permits and had “inadequate rudimentary shoring in place.”
The passage “was found to be empty other than dirt, tools and debris from workers,” he said. It was filled with concrete January 12 under an emergency work order from the department.
A Google Maps screenshot augmented by the department shows the extent of the tunnel, highlighted in yellow.
Chabad Media Director Motti Seligson said in a January 9 statement posted on X that the tunnel was created by “a group of extremist students” to provide “unauthorized access” — and that the Lubavitch organization had been seeking control of the underground passage through the courts (archived here).
Some time ago, a group of extremist students, broke through a few walls in adjacent properties to the synagogue at 784-788 Eastern Parkway, to provide them unauthorized access. Earlier today, a cement truck was brought in to repair those walls. Those efforts were disrupted by the…
— Motti Seligson (@mottiseligson) January 9, 2024
A separate post from the group called the tunnel “vandalism of a group of young agitators” (archived here).
News outlets reported the passage was built by a breakaway group seeking to expand the synagogue to honor their deceased leader, Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
AFP has debunked other claims related to Epstein here, here and here.
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