A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out.
Discovery of a tunnel at a Chabad synagogue spurs false claims and conspiracy theories
CLAIM: A secret underground tunnel found connected to the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters, a historic synagogue in Brooklyn that serves as the center of an influential Hasidic Jewish movement, was used for child sex trafficking or other illicit activities.
THE FACTS: The claims are unfounded, hinting at long-standing antisemitic tropes and more recent baseless conspiracy theories about child trafficking rings run by elite public figures, including government officials. News of a brawl between police and worshippers that broke out over the tunnel on Monday at Chabad’s headquarters led to such baseless allegations spreading quickly on social media. The exact purpose and provenance of the tunnel remains the subject of some debate, but there is no credible evidence it was used for the nefarious purposes social media users are falsely connecting it to.
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Officials and locals said young men in the Chabad community recently built the passage to the sanctuary in secret. Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesperson for Chabad, characterized the construction as a rogue act of vandalism committed by a group of misguided young men, calling them “extremists” who were attempting to “preserve their unauthorized access” to the synagogue. Those who supported the tunnel, however, said they were carrying out an “expansion” plan long envisioned by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the former head of the Chabad movement. Also known as the Seventh Rebbe, Schneerson led the Chabad-Lubavitch movement for more than four decades before his death in 1994, reinvigorating a small religious community that had been devastated by the Holocaust.
Many supporters of the tunnel’s construction believe Schneerson is still alive and that he is the Messiah. This idea is largely rejected by Chabad and has created a schism within the movement. Chabad leaders declined to say when they discovered the tunnel at their headquarters in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, but several worshippers said word of its existence had spread through the community in recent weeks. “This entire episode is immensely painful for us, the Jewish community at…
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