The Famous History of the Brooklyn Synagogue That Went Viral

A historic synagogue in New York City made headlines earlier this week when videos captured a dispute between Jewish worshippers and local authorities over a makeshift tunnel that had been dug into the side of the brick building. The altercation erupted on Monday afternoon at the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood after construction workers arrived at the scene to fill the underground passageway with cement. Footage shared by witnesses to social media shows police officers clashing with a group of Hasidic worshippers inside a man-made dusty cavern while bystanders can be seen throwing seats and shoving other officers; nine people were arrested and charged with criminal mischief, reckless endangerment, and obstruction of governmental administration.

While the bizarre dispute between authorities and congregation members over the illegal excavation has led to a slew of memes and antisemitic conspiracies, 770 Eastern Parkway was famous long before it became a trending topic on social media. The Collegiate Gothic Revival building has long been an iconic emblem for the Lubavitch Hasidic faith, replicated dozens of times around the world. 

As the epicenter for the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement, the three-story red-brick building has been a historic landmark for the ultra-Orthodox sect of Judaism since March 1940, when it became the home and synagogue of the sixth rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, and later the location of the offices of his son-in-law and the seventh rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

Later, the religious group purchased the building next door to 770 to expand the headquarters. As of 2021, there were at least 35 architectural doppelgängers of the structure across the globe, according to The Forward, including in El Pasos, Texas, whose outpost was completed in 2021 and has also replicated 770 in its building’s facade.

“The Rebbe is the source of all of our inspiration and our understanding and appreciation for Judaism and for our heritage, giving us the mandate to spread this message throughout the world, and so this building became like a lighthouse,” Rabbi Levi Greenberg of the Chabad Lubavitch in El Paso told Hyperallergic.

Greenberg likened the Crown Heights building to the White House for Lubavitch Jews, as the site has become a place of pilgrimage and prayer for both Jewish and non-Jewish people alike.

Greenberg also explained that there is added significance behind the building’s numerical address in Hebrew, as the digits seven-seven-zero translate to the word parazta meaning “to burst forth” — a reference to the Judaic duty to spread their faith. Interestingly, 770 is also the numerical value of the Hebrew term Beis Moshiach, meaning “House of the Messiah.”

“The whole point is we should go out to the entire world and bring this inspiration of goodness and kindness. Jews should do mitzvot,” Greenberg explained.

In the early 2000s, the 770 doppelgängers were the subject of a photography series by artist duo Andrea Robbins and Max Becher, who spent six years documenting the replicates after researching the original building’s history. In 2005, their work was presented at the Jewish Museum as part of the group exhibition The Jewish Identity Project: New American Photography.

“None of the 770s are exact replicas, all adapt to their locations in different ways, and some display local style elements,” Robbins and Becher said in an interview, adding that some feature reproductions of the Rebbe’s office and library.

In a 2014 interview, Robbins referred to the 770 replicas as a type of “insider message” for Lubavitch Hasidic Jews. 

“In other words, if you don’t know 770 Eastern Parkway, then you’re going to walk by the building or drive by it, and you’ll never see it … But to the Lubavitcher, it’s very exciting to them and it means only one thing,” Robbins told the now-defunct DNAinfo.

Replicas can also be found in Melbourne, Australia; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Montreal, Canada. The arguably most famous reproduction was built at the direction of the seventh rebbe in the village of Kfar Chabad, formerly the Palestinian village of Al-Safiriyya, which has the largest Lubavitch community outside Crown Heights. That replica is an exact duplicate of the Brooklyn structure, both inside and out.

While the details behind the recently uncovered tunnel in Crown Heights are still unclear, leaders from the synagogue expressed their disapproval of the illegal passageway in a statement by Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky posted to X.

“The Chabad-Lubavitch community is pained by the vandalism of a group of young agitators who damaged the synagogue below Chabad Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway Monday night,” the statement read. “We are grateful for the outpouring of concern, and for the support of our Chabad-Lubavitch institutions around the world.”