Tunnel Discovered Under Chabad Headquarters Sparks Antisemitic Firestorm Online

On January 8, 2024, clashes broke out at the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn, known as 770, over a passageway allegedly constructed by students from adjacent properties into the synagogue. This passageway, referred to as a tunnel in the media, was discovered in December 2023, and when a cement truck came to fill it, skirmishes broke out between police and involved individuals. Video footage showed men inside and in front of the passageway, both defacing the property and attempting to prevent it from being filled. 

Chabad is an orthodox Jewish Hasidic organization that represents one of the most significant Jewish religious sects in the world. A Chabad spokesperson called the men who are accused of digging the passageway “extremist,” but specific details regarding the perpetrators, timeline and motive are still emerging.

Age-old antisemitic conspiracy theories ran rampant on social media after the story broke, with hate-filled rhetoric percolating in both extremist and mainstream spaces and across the ideological spectrum. These antisemitic tropes have motivated violence against Jews for centuries.

Invoking antisemitic child trafficking and blood libel conspiracy theories 
One of the most pernicious and dangerous themes that emerged is the allegation that Jews were using this passageway to traffic, abuse or ritualistically murder children. Some have specifically resurrected the age-old blood libel charge to support this allegation.

Above: Anti-Israel account on Instagram shares cryptic post about mattresses, while commenters speculate on its connection to Zionism and missing children.

From anti-Israel activists to conspiratorial influencers and QAnon groups (who routinely cite “underground tunnels” as evidence of a global child sex trafficking conspiracy) social media erupted with claims of child abuse or sex trafficking by Chabad. In one instance - antisemitic and far-right conspiracy theorist Stew Peters misquoted Jewish scripture while discussing the tunnels to validate this frequently-debunked claim. Such conspiracies have led to violence in recent years.  

Above: Post on X with over 13 million views and over 26K shares.

Some posts explicitly evoked claims of blood libel, the vile antisemitic myth claiming that Jews use non-Jewish children’s blood to perform religious rituals. This rhetoric dates back to the Middle Ages, when a monk accused the Jewish community of murdering a young boy. As a result, Jews were often blamed for Christian children’s deaths or disappearances across the centuries into the modern era.  

Above: 4chan user suggests blood libel “rituals” being carried out in tunnels.

Antisemitic tropes about Jewish power 
Other content focused on so-called Jewish power, asserting that Jews can act unabated in New York, or that they have disproportionate advantages to other groups. Inherent in this trope is the conspiratorial subtext that Jewish activity is nefarious and that they can easily get away with illegal or criminal acts. Despite the well-documented police activity and arrests at Chabad’s HQ, many still suggested that law enforcement was lenient towards the group, with one user claiming that “New York Jews” had “police in their pockets.”

Above: X user claims that Hasidic Jews are permitted “to do whatever they want.”

Above: Example of TikTok comments which argue that Jews in New York are inherently privileged

Parallels to Hamas tunnel network in Gaza 
A specific manifestation of the Jewish power trope surfaced in response to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. Anti-Zionists accounts compared the passageway to Hamas’s terror tunnels, asking why only Hamas tunnels are considered “evil.” Other anti-Zionist accounts on TikTok alleged that tunnels in Gaza were for Hamas’s survival, whereas Jews in New York wouldn’t need tunnels unless they were for nefarious reasons.

Above: Anti-Zionist channel on Telegram compares reactions to Hamas tunnels to Chabad passageways

Above: TikTok user speculates about why Jews would “need a tunnel system,” arguing that Hamas needs theirs to survive.

Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) for antisemitic propaganda 
Users on 4chan, Telegram and X used generative artificial intelligence tools, or GAI, to generate images of the incident. Some content was hyper-realistic, falsely depicting actual documentation of the tunnels. Other content manifested as grotesque antisemitic propaganda, portraying religious Jews in the form of antisemitic caricatures or rats, carrying bloodied children and mattresses.

Above: Fabricated image of mattress being carried out of passageway from GAI-centric Telegram channel

Above: Post on X showing GAI image of rat holding a bleeding baby