JNS.org
T

he Detroit Police 
Department released 
a suspect late on Nov. 
10 it held for 72 hours in con-
nection with the Oct. 21 mur-
der of Downtown Synagogue 
leader Samantha Woll.
As of JN press time, the 
police declined to name the 
suspect. The suspect’s defense 
team, Allison Kriger and 
Mark Kriger, confirmed the 
man’s release to the Detroit 
News, which reported that the 

suspect made “an ambiguous 
statement” to police, citing 
law-enforcement sources.
“Four sources told the News 
the man was an acquaintance 
of Woll’s who was arrested 
[Nov. 7] in Kalamazoo after 
giving a statement to police 
about the killing, although the 
sources said they didn’t think 
the declaration alone would 
be enough to bring charges,” 
the paper reported.
“
At this time, the details of 
the investigation must remain 

confidential including the 
name of the suspect,” the 
Detroit police posted on Nov. 
9. “Investigators are at a critical 
juncture in this case and are 
working tirelessly toward 
bringing this matter to closure.”
Despite having offered no 
other explanation or details 

publicly 23 days after Woll’s 
murder — and in spite of a 
large increase in antisemitism 
following Hamas’ Oct. 7 
terrorist attacks on Israel — 
the Detroit police have said 
that the evidence does not 
suggest an anti-Jewish hate 
crime. 

JTA
T

he U.S. House of 
Representatives censured 
Michigan Rep. Rashida 
Tlaib, Palestinian American 
Democrat, for her rhetoric 
in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 
invasion of Israel, including 
using the phrase “from the river 
to the sea.
”
The 234-188 vote late 
Tuesday, Nov. 7, saw 22 
Democrats vote to censure 
Tlaib, and was sure to sharpen 
divides among Democrats over 
Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. 
Some Democrats vehemently 
defended Tlaib’s right to free 
speech and others said the 
“from the river to the sea” 
term signifies the elimination 
of Israel. The vote was largely 

on party lines, reflecting the 
Republican majority, although 
22 Democrats voted for 
censuring Tlaib while four 
Republicans voted against.
Tlaib said she would not be 
intimidated by the censure vote, 
which will require her to stand 
in the well of the House chamber 
and listen to House Speaker Mike 
Johnson explain why she is being 
censured. “I will not be silenced, 
and I will not let you distort my 
words,
” she said.
The censure resolution 
was initiated by Rep. Rich 
McCormick, a Georgia 
Republican, and focused on 
statements by Tlaib since Hamas 
launched the war. It noted that 
Tlaib used the phrase on “from 
the river to the sea” Nov. 3 on 

social media and argued that 
“it is widely recognized as a 
genocidal call to violence to 
destroy the State of Israel and 
its people to replace it with 
a Palestinian state extending 
from the Jordan River to the 
Mediterranean Sea.
”
Tlaib in her Nov. 3 post 
on X, the platform formerly 
known as Twitter, said she 
used the phrase to describe a 
democratic outcome for all in 
that region. “From the river to 
the sea is an aspirational call 
for freedom, human rights 
and peaceful coexistence, not 

death, destruction or hate,
” she 
said. “My work and advocacy is 
always centered in justice and 
dignity for all people no matter 
faith or ethnicity.
”
A number of Jewish 
Democrats decried the use of 
the phrase, but said limiting 
her speech set a dangerous 
precedent.
Tlaib said that calling her 
antisemitic was a means of 
censoring her. 
“The idea that criticizing 
the government of Israel is 
antisemitic sets a very dangerous 
precedent,
” she said. 

Police Release 
Suspect in Murder 
of Samantha Woll 

JCRC/AJC Board Member Samantha Woll lighting candles in 2018. 

COURTESY OF JCRC/AJC.

U.S. House of 
Representatives 
Censures Tlaib 

Reps. Cori Bush, a Missouri Democrat, and Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan 
Democrat, talk as they attend a bipartisan candlelight vigil with 
members of Congress to commemorate one month since the Hamas 
terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, at the U.S. Capitol, Nov. 7, 2023

DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES

OUR COMMUNITY

26 | NOVEMBER 16 • 2023 
J
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