Andrew Tate Synagogue Tunnel Message Debunked

Andrew Tate’s suggestion that a tunnel under a New York City synagogue connects to a children’s museum has been debunked on X, formerly Twitter.

The former kickboxer and controversial figure made the claim this week in a post directed at conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, with whom he has been engaged in a public war of words over Israel’s ongoing conflict with Hamas.

On October 9, two days after Hamas killed and kidnapped people in southern Israel in a surprise attack, Shapiro, who is Jewish and a staunch supporter of Israel, reposted a clip of the ongoing fighting in the Gaza Strip.

Originally shared by user Mario Nawfal, the footage was accompanied by the caption: “JUST IN: The UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Palestine: ‘We are horrified by what is happening and we call for a truce.'”

In the response to the call for peace, Shapiro wrote: “And they can f*** right off.” Tate commented on Shapiro’s post, referring to him as “Mr. Tough Guy.”

“Let me assure you as someone who has does his own fighting—as opposed to excitedly encouraging others to do it for him—while sitting at home on a comfy chair,” Tate said. “Peace is always worth a conversation.”

Tate, who is Muslim and anti-war, has previously expressed support for Palestine and is advocating for a cease-fire.

Replying to Tate’s jibe, Shapiro said: “Let me assure you, as someone who has not pimped women and bragged about it, that morality requires that those who rape women and kidnap children must be eradicated, not negotiated with.”

Shapiro was referencing Tate’s charges for rape and human trafficking in Romania, where he is accused of creating an organized crime group with the aim of sexually exploiting women.

On Wednesday, Tate took aim at Shapiro once again, when he wrote in an X post: “Hello @benshapiro please explain the tunnels under a synagogue that lead to a kids museum? Thanks.”

The post later hit with a Community Notes update that refuted Tate’s claim. Community Notes, a “crowdsourced” fact-checking tool on X, was introduced by the platform in late 2022 in an effort to combat misinformation that is still rampant.

According to the Community Notes update added to Tate’s post, “The Jewish Children’s Museum is across the street from the Chabad’s headquarters. The passageway did not cross the street.”

The update included a link to Google Maps to show the area in question, as well as an NBC New York article that sheds further light on the tunnel.

According to the news outlet, the illicit underground tunnel was discovered underneath the global headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. It measures at 60-foot-long, 8-foot-wide and 5-foot-high.

Community news outlet CrownHeights.Info said a construction worker discovered it spanned from under the women’s section of the synagogue to a mikvah—a Jewish ritual cleansing bath. Synagogue leadership decided to close off the women’s section until a decision could be reached on how to secure the building.

The New York City Fire Department told reporters that it received an anonymous tip about the tunnel in December 2020 but could not find it when it checked it out.

Following the discovery of the tunnel, emergency efforts have been made by New York City building officials to stabilize the synagogue and its neighboring structures to offset any damage done in the illegal tunnel dig.

Citing officials and locals, it was reported that young men in the community had worked on the tunnel in secret. Efforts by the group’s leaders to seal off the tunnel spurred protests from supporters of the illegal structure.

Supporters of the tunnel said that they were fulfilling an expansion plan that had been envisioned, though not carried out, by Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the former head of the Chabad movement.

Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesperson for Chabad, condemned the “extremists who broke through the wall to the synagogue, vandalizing the sanctuary, in an effort to preserve their unauthorized access.”

Despite Tate’s claims, there is no mention of the tunnel being linked to the children’s museum.

While Shapiro did not appear to respond to Tate’s message, he did share an X post regarding the tunnel from HuffPost contributor Yashar Ali.

“The bad behavior of some extremists at the Chabad in Crown Heights should have been a local news issue at most,” Ali wrote, alongside a video that discussed the matter further. “Instead, it’s turned into a global antisemitic flood of some of the most dangerous conspiracy theories about Jews dating back to the Middle Ages.

“The attempt—one that shouldn’t have been made and was wrong—to expand a basement has now turned into ‘the Jews have tunnels where they are [insert blood libel here].’ I’m seeing this spread aggressively all over the world…it’s not surprising, but still depressing.”