4 men charged in a Brooklyn synagogue tunnel scuffle are awaiting trial in April

NEW YORK — Four men accused of damaging a Brooklyn synagogue during a melee that followed the discovery of a secret tunnel at the global headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement of Hasidic Judaism are set to stand trial after turning down a plea deal offered by prosecutors. “This is a blemish on the Chabad movement as far as I’m concerned,” Judge Adam Perlmutter told the men, scolding them for not consulting with synagogue leadership about the expansion plan. “Kids don’t decide on their own to take the actions he did without being told to do so by much older and wiser people of authority.” Proponents of the tunnel said they were carrying out the wishes of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the longtime leader of the Chabad movement and one of Judaism’s most influential figures, who spoke of expanding the densely packed religious space before his death in 1994. “We pray that they actually heed the Rebbe’s teachings of highest ethics and see the grave error of their ways, and make moral and religious amends for the immense pain and damage they’ve wrought.” Stretching 60 feet long and 8 feet wide, the tunnel connected multiple buildings in the Jewish complex through holes cut in basement walls.