OUR COMMUNITY

Editor’s Note: Look for a complete tribute to 
Samantha Woll in next week’s JN. 
S

amantha Woll, a Democratic activist 
and prominent Jewish lay leader in 
Detroit, was found stabbed to death 
outside her home.
Police found Woll, 40, at 6:30 a.m. on 
Saturday in the city’s Lafayette Park neighbor-
hood. She had been stabbed multiple times 
and was unresponsive. A trail of blood led to 
her home, which police believe may be the 
scene of the crime. As of press time, police 
said there was no evidence that Woll was tar-
geted because she was Jewish.
“There are no known threats to the com-
munity at this time,
” the Jewish Federation of 
Detroit said in an alert to the community. “No 
evidence has been shared to indicate this was a 
targeted act motivated by antisemitism.
”
Woll was the president of the Isaac Agree 
Downtown Synagogue. Since last year, she has 
led an ambitious expansion of the synagogue 
that aimed to make it a central part of the 
renewal of Detroit’s Jewish community.
“We are shocked and saddened to learn of 
the unexpected death of Samantha Woll, our 
board president,
” the synagogue said in an 
alert it sent its congregants.

In 2017, the Jewish News listed Woll as one 
of its 36 Jews to watch under the age of 36. 
She was noted for her role in co-founding the 
Muslim-Jewish Forum of Detroit. 
She was also politically active, having previ-
ously worked for U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, the 
Jewish Democrat now running for Senate, and 
last year on the re-election campaign of Dana 
Nessel, Michigan’s Jewish attorney general.
Nessel, Slotkin and other Michigan political 
figures paid tribute to Woll on social media. 
Slotkin, writing on X, recalled a woman as 

dedicated to her politics as she was to her 
faith. Woll was Slotkin’s deputy district direc-
tor from 2019 to 2021.
“Separately, in politics and in the Jewish 
community, she dedicated her short life to 
building understanding across faiths, bringing 
light in the face of darkness,
” she said.
Noah Arbit, a state legislator who was her 
friend, wrote on Facebook that Woll “believed 
in the city and the people of Detroit, and her 
deep commitment to Judaism and the Jewish 
people reflected in all of her work.
”
Andy Levin, the former Democratic con-
gressman, met Woll in 2016 when he helped 
found Detroit Jews for Justice. The group 
launched that fall with a retreat at a camp-
ground in Western Michigan. There was an 
exercise where participants paired off for 
“one on ones,
” where they exchanged insights. 
Levin was paired with Woll.
“She was so full of idealism and passion 
for justice, and so after that, we always stayed 
close,
” he said. “I can’t process losing Sam Woll 
at the age of 40. That’s not what’s supposed to 
happen. I can’t believe I won’t see her. I cannot 
believe I won’t see her when I go to a Detroit 
Jews for Justice event or go to the Downtown 
Synagogue or go to the Eastern Market.
”
Throughout her adult life, Woll was 
active in the Jewish community, includ-
ing at the University of Michigan’s Hillel 
and as a co-chairwoman of the American 
Jewish Committee’s ACCESS Detroit Young 
Leadership Program. She was also on the board 
of the Jewish Historical Society of Michigan.

Our community mourns the loss of Samantha Woll.
Taken Too Soon

RON KAMPEAS JTA

Goodbye, Friend

Sam Woll had purple eyes and 
wild black curls. She was very 
beautiful.
She was the very definition 
of life. If you met her once, 
you remember.
Her laugh was a bit too loud 
always, and she wore her 
heart on her sleeve. It was a 
huge heart. Room enough in 
it for all the friends she col-
lected in her travels, for all the 
injustices to be righted in the 
world.
Sam brought a powerful 
energy, an electricity, vitality 

to any space. She argued 
with everyone; she hugged 
everyone. She held her opin-
ions strongly, articulated them, 
stood by them. She was an 
outspoken advocate for the 
Jewish people and their right 
to live in their indigenous 
homeland, while soliciting, 
deeply listening and validating 
the experiences of others. 
She knew clearly who she 
was, and wanted to know who 
others were. It was a talent 
she had.
She wore brightly colored 
tie-dyed T-shirts with the many 
causes she supported ban-
nered across the front: flowers 
for battered women’s shelters, 

PRIDE shirts, friendship cir-
cles, danceathons, improving 
education in urban settings, 
for Israel, for Muslim-Jewish 
dialogue, for peace. She was 
an unwavering ally. She also 
wore suits at city hall and in 
her political advocacy. She 
wore dresses to the weddings 
of her friends — and to my 
wedding where we danced 
together until we glistened.
She prayed. Loudly and 
fervently, over the Torah which 
she loved, or over interfaith 
gatherings, or sometimes 
when it was needed, privately 
with a friend, or alone in her 
own space.
She struggled. Like we all 

Samantha 
Woll

ANDREW LAPIN/JTA

Samantha Woll welcomes 
attendees to the 
congregation’s centennial 
celebration in August 2022.

RACHEL M. ROTH 
TIMES OF ISRAEL

