Yeshiva students who were charged for illegally digging tunnels underneath the Chabad-Lubavitch synagogue in Crown Heights were offered a plea deal in Brooklyn Supreme Court, the New York Post reported on Thursday. 

The deal would ban the 13 young men from the Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters for three years. Only one defendant, Menachem Molekandov, is considering accepting the deal, according to court documents. Meanwhile, the defendants who do not reach an agreement with prosecutors are slated to appear in court in January.

In addition to a three year ban, the men would have to plead guilty to the misdemeanor of fourth-degree criminal mischief. They would not receive jail time, but would have to either fulfill 20 days of community service or pay a $5,000 fine. 

However, it seems to be the three year ban from the Chabad headquarters — known colloquially as “770” — that concerns the defendants. 

“Being banned from 770 for three years is worse than jail,” Yaakov Rothchild, one of the defendants, told the Post. 

If Rothchild and his fellow yeshiva students decide to turn down the plea deal offered to them by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, they could face up to seven years in prison on felony-charges of second degree criminal mischief, second degree reckless endangerment, and obstruction of Governmental Administration in the second degree. All defendants pleaded not guilty to these charges.

At the court appearance this week, prosecutors shared concerns that photographs taken since the last court date indicate a lack of remorse. In these images defendants held signs that read “Expand 770,” expressing an intention to continue the illegal tunneling that sparked the initial controversy. 

In January, synagogue officials discovered a group of young men had been secretly digging tunnels beneath the main Chabad synagogue without permission. Indeed, it transpired that the students, from the extreme, messianic Tzfatim group, had already been tunneling for years as part of an unauthorized excavation to expand the synagogue. 

The discovery of the tunnels raised serious structural concerns for the buildings above and around them, and synagogue administrators immediately arranged for them to be filled. These administrators then had to call the police when a group of young men affiliated with the tunnelers attacked and vandalized cement trucks that arrived to support these repairs. 

After police were called to the scene, the young men began to demolish the interior of the Chabad headquarters, including a section of the synagogue wall. As the police began making arrests, tensions escalated into a miniature riot. Videos circulating online even show a group of people pushing the police who had sectioned off the vandalized part of the synagogue, resulting in further arrests. 

Molekandov will appear in court to discuss his plea deal on November 4, while the twelve remaining defendants will appear in court on January 13, 2025.