Man faces federal charges for swastika on Michigan synagogue

HANCOCK, Mich. (AP) — A man has been charged in federal court with defacing one of Michigan’s oldest synagogues with a swastika in 2019. The vandalism occurred on the outside of Temple Jacob in Hancock in the Upper Peninsula. Nathan Weeden of Houghton was indicted on charges of conspiring against rights and damaging religious property. He was released on bond Thursday following his arrest in Saline in southeastern Michigan. In 2021, a New Jersey man was sentenced to a year in prison for conspiring to direct others to deface Temple Jacob as well as a synagogue in Racine, Wisconsin. Construction of Temple Jacob was completed in 1912.