Four rabbinical student busted in a tunnel under a historic Brooklyn synagogue were found hiding “inside a hole” in a wall they’d damaged — then refused to get out despite the cops’ orders, according to court documents.
Dov Bear Shenhav, 20; Shmuel Malka, 19; Blumenfeld Yerachmiel, 20; and Henachem Mulakando, 19 were each charged with obstruction after they were finally dragged out of their hidden home under the famed Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights.
Mulakando and Yerachmiel were also charged with criminal mischief for allegedly destroying the synagogue wall right in front of the cops.
“Yerachmiel was using a crowbar to remove wood panels, and defendant Mulakando was removing wood panels with his bare hands,” the complaint read.
Sources said the renegade students started the fly-by-night big dig because they wanted to expand the synagogue’s sanctuary, but higher-ups were dragging their feet.
The rebels first gained entry into an abandoned Jewish men’s mikvah, or ritual bath, around the corner on Kingston Avenue.
They then broke through a roughly 2-by-2-foot metal gate in the former bath’s basement wall and tunneled their way under a sanctuary space reserved for women next-door to the synagogue.
Then they breached the synagogue’s massive main sanctuary.
Video footage revealed the bizarre tunnel — and at least one beer can in it along with hanging electrical wire. Also shown was a dirt-filled room in the abandoned bath and clothes and other items scattered around it.
A riot broke out Monday when the diggers tried to thwart cement-truck workers called in to fill in their underground hideaway at the request of Chabad-Lubavitch authorities.
The rogues were filmed tearing down wood panels and wooden support beams as they desperately tried to get into their tunnel to protect it.
About a dozen men were taken into custody as cops arrived to try to remove the students.
“(Officers) repeatedly ordered defendants to leave said wall through both words and gestures but defendants refused to do so,” a criminal complaint stated about the four renegades.
A fifth student, Levi Tyz Lahav, 20, was charged with obstruction for interfering with cops’ efforts to arrest the others, according to the complaint.
All five pleaded not guilty at their arraignments in Brooklyn Criminal Court Tuesday night and were released without bail.
Four others were given desk appearance tickets on charges of attempted criminal mischief and reckless endangerment.
On Wednesday, city building inspectors parsed through the shut-down complex as they looked for violations.
It wasn’t immediately clear if they found any.
Additional reporting by Kevin Sheehan
