The Hasidic tunnel in NYC is weird in an infinite number of ways.
First, a Hasidic Riot is the weirdest possible image.
Second, if they wanted a mikvah, it would be easier and safer to build one in their own building, instead of paying Mexicans to dig a tunnel to reach the existing mikvah. Hasidim have a self-contained cult economy in NYC, with their own businesses and banks. They can do everything without leaving the community or enriching unbelievers. This reason doesn’t make sense. It can’t be the whole story.
Third, when the headlines mentioned Shawshank I felt the need to say something. I’ve served time in Mansfield, the Shawshank location, and I’ve debunked the tunnel.
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Shawshank was strictly and purely fictional. Some of the movie was filmed in the now-abandoned OSR, but the plot wouldn’t make sense in the actual OSR. There’s no way you could dig into a sewer from a cell. The inner core of the East block is steel, not diggable at all.
The inner core of the West Block is potentially diggable old concrete. You could conceivably dig out of the end cell (32) on each range (the red wall in this simplified model), but you would only get through the wall of the core. To be exact, you’d climb out of the cell onto the catwalk where the screws are constantly patrolling. Long before your opening was large enough to crawl through, the process of digging would have been obvious to the screws.
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Organized gangs that own the territory and the police have been able to build sophisticated drug-smuggling tunnels under the US/Mexico border. A tunnel requires control over both ends and control over the cops. Even if the fictional Shawshank tunnel had been physically possible, the prisoners didn’t own the guards.
The NYC synagogue tunnel was physically achieved, but how could the Hasidim imagine they wouldn’t be IMMEDIATELY detected? NYC is dense, with traffic everywhere at all hours, full of security cameras and civilians with iPhones.
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Later, this article at Curbed fills in better info. There are three competing sects, each claiming the authority of Rebbe Schneerson. The group who dug the tunnel believes the Rebbe is the Messiah, and believes he’s still alive. The other two groups own different parts of the synagogue complex, which was already creating conflicts. The Messianists, who don’t own any of it, want to expand the synagogue. The tunnel was part of a project to create a larger worship space underground. According to the article, it wasn’t as amateurish as it seems. The Messianists had an architect and contractors ready to work, but they didn’t own the property, so it’s still crazy.
Polistra's Mill 