NOVEMBER 2 • 2023 | 15
J
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A special quality of Woll’s, 
Lopatin recalls, is how she was 
able to connect with younger 
people — young Jews, young 
Muslims and beyond. 
“
And it’s interesting, she’s 
someone who did not have any 
children herself,
” Lopatin said. 
“I think someone like her brings 
hope for our children that this 
can be a better world.
” 
To everyone who knew her, 
Woll was not only a person they 
wanted at their side — everyone 
already felt she was at their side. 
“Everyone in every commu-
nity felt (that way). And even 
if she didn’t agree with them, 
she definitely understood and 
respected them,
” Lopatin said.
If there was any kind of dis-
connect between the Jewish 
community and another com-
munity, Woll believed the com-
munities needed to lean in and 
engage with each other more, 
not step back and engage less. 
Alicia Chandler, a past presi-
dent of JCRC/AJC, was a friend 
and colleague of Woll for years. 
Chandler says she’ll miss the joy 
and conviction she brought to 

all of her work. 
“Sam was so 
absolutely gen-
uine when she 
met everybody,
” 
Chandler said. 
“That’s why people 
liked her and why 
she was so great at interfaith 
work. She valued every person 
she met as a human being.
”

A FRIEND TO ALL
To her friends, she was “Sam”: 
the greatest friend anyone could 
ever hope to have in life, a 
constant, a rock, a cheerleader 
always by their side. 
“Sam’s friends crossed 
socio-economic, racial, religious 
and political boundaries. It 
would be such a better world if 
any of us could make a fraction 
of the connections with each 
other that she was capable of 
making,
” Chandler said.
Those uniquely personal 
relationships Woll forged were 
on display at her funeral, which 
was attended by an overflow 
crowd of 1,000 people from 

Mayor Mike Duggan and Sam Woll

Alicia 
Chandler

Sam with Shadia 
Martini and 
Aisha Farooqi 
at the Detroit 
Stands with 
Israel rally at 
Congregation 
Shaarey Zedek 
this year.

continued on page 16

As of press time, no 
arrests have been made 
in the murder of Woll, who 
was found stabbed to 
death on the morning of 
Oct. 21 outside her home 
in Detroit’s Lafayette Park 
neighborhood.
Detroit Police Chief 
James White said Oct. 23 
he is confident the killing 
was “not motivated by 
antisemitism.”
“Right now, the evi-
dence has not taken us 
there,” White said.
White said police have 
identified “persons of 
interest” in the case but 
were “just short” of calling 
one of those people a 
suspect. The investigation 
is ongoing.

 JAMIE FELDMAN

 JAMIE FELDMAN

 JAMIE FELDMAN

Sam Woll