• Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Chabad-Lubavitch Jews are ultra-orthodox nuts. I wasn’t surprised when I first heard this story and I’m still whelmed.

      • Ultragramps@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        10 months ago

        Same Chabad linked Putin and Trump in a Politico piece a while back.

        Starting in 1999, Putin enlisted two of his closest confidants, the oligarchs Lev Leviev and Roman Abramovich, who would go on to become Chabad’s biggest patrons worldwide, to create the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia under the leadership of Chabad rabbi Berel Lazar, who would come to be known as “Putin’s rabbi.”

        A few years later, Trump would seek out Russian projects and capital by joining forces with a partnership called Bayrock-Sapir, led by Soviet emigres Tevfik Arif, Felix Sater and Tamir Sapir—who maintain close ties to Chabad. The company’s ventures would lead to multiple lawsuits alleging fraud and a criminal investigation of a condo project in Manhattan.

  • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    So what was the goal of this?

    Were they breaking into or out of the synagogue? This is like the lamest bank heist or all time.

    • Pipoca@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      From what I understand, it’s part of triggering the return of the messiah, the late head rabbi of that synagogue. He apparently said something about expanding the building before he died, but there’s been no movement on it for assorted reasons like the court cases over the building’s ownership.

      So the idea was apparently that finishing the expansion would be the easier option once they already tunneled it out.