US antisemitic incidents hit record high in 2023 amid war in Gaza, report says
Reuters The number of antisemitic incidents of assault, vandalism and harassment in the US hit a record high in 2023 as anti-Jewish sentiment spiked after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, according to a report released this week. The Jewish advocacy group Anti-Defamation League (ADL) tallied 8,873 antisemitic incidents in 2023, a 140 per cent […]
In the US, James MacDonald, former Harvest Bible pastor, charged with felony assault and battery

United States RNS Former Chicago area megachurch pastor James MacDonald has been charged with two felonies for allegedly assaulting a woman during a dispute over parking. MacDonald, who was fired from Harvest Bible Chapel in 2019 and later disqualified from ministry for what church leaders called a “substantial pattern of sinful behaviour”, was arrested in Coronado, California, on 22nd […]
In Uganda, church leader charged with assault on boy

Kampala, Uganda Police in Uganda have arrested and charged the bishop of the Evangelical Orthodox Church for Central and Eastern Uganda with aggravated assault after he allegedly beat up and injured a 14-year-old boy whom he had accused of stealing sh10,000 ($US2.64). Bishop Jancinto Kibuuka, an excommunicated Catholic priest, was arrested on Wednesday, 24th August, […]
US civil rights advocates, victims’ families urge support for new hate crime reporting bill

RNS Nearly three years ago, Khalid Jabara, an immigrant from Lebanon, died on his own doorstep in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when his neighbour gunned him down. One year later on the same day of the month – 12th August – a woman named Heather Heyer was struck and killed by a white supremacist driving a car after […]
Violence against Jews in US doubled last year – ADL study

RNS Violent attacks against US Jews doubled in 2018, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s yearly audit of anti-Semitic incidents. Yet the report, published days after a synagogue shooting in Poway, California, that killed one woman and injured three other people, shows that despite the grim spike in violence against Jews, physical assaults remained relatively rare. Anti-Semitic […]