The well-known president of a Michigan synagogue was found stabbed to death outside of her home on Saturday, amid heightened concerns that the unfolding Israel-Gaza war could lead to violence in the United States and elsewhere.
Detroit police said that they did not have a motive in the killing of Samantha Woll, 40, who led the board of Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue in Detroit, and urged the public to be patient while the investigation continued.
“No evidence has surfaced suggesting that this crime was motivated by antisemitism,” Detroit Police Chief James E. White said in a statement Sunday afternoon.
He also said the FBI had been called in to help analyze the evidence and determine a timeline for the events that led to Woll’s death.
“I again ask the community to remain patient while our investigators and law enforcement partners continue their work. Everything that can be done to bring this matter to closure is being called into service,” White said in the statement.
Woll had been stabbed multiple times, according to a police statement on Saturday. When officers responded to an emergency call early Saturday, they discovered a trail of blood leading to her home, “which is where the crime is believed to have occurred,” the statement said.
Woll was well known in Democratic politics, working on campaigns for local candidates and as the political director for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s reelection campaign during the 2022 midterm election and as a deputy district director for Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) for two years, starting in 2019, according to her LinkedIn page.
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Both women expressed heartbreak over learning of Woll’s death.
Share this articleShare“I am shocked, saddened and horrified to learn of Sam’s brutal murder,” Nessel (D) said in a statement on Saturday. She remembered Woll as “as kind a person as I’ve ever known. She was driven by her sincere love of her community, state and country. Sam truly used her faith and activism to create a better place for everyone.”
Woll helped set up and run Slotkin’s office during her first full term, doing for the congresswoman’s team “what came so naturally to her: helping others,” the congresswoman wrote in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I’ll miss her relentless desire to serve & her bright smile seemingly everywhere across the Detroit area.”
Woll described herself online as someone who was passionate about serving her community, particularly the vulnerable. The synagogue mourned the death of Woll, who just two months ago helped install a mezuza, or a sacred scroll placed at a threshold of an entryway, on the front door of the newly-renovated synagogue.
“We are shocked and saddened,” the synagogue said in a statement on Facebook. “At this point we do not have more information, but will share more when it becomes available. May her memory be a blessing.”
David Nakamura contributed to this report.
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