(NewsNation) — A Detroit synagogue president who was fatally stabbed at her home will be remembered by friends and family as a thoughtful leader who built bridges between communities.
“Sam was an amazing human being,” Michigan Sen. Stephanie Chang said, remembering her colleague and college friend Samantha Woll. “Sam was someone who just brought so much joy and happiness to everyone that she knew, and everyone that she cared about.”
The 40-year-old Woll, or “Sam” as she was known to friends and family, was president of Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue.
She had attended a wedding Friday night and left the event around 12:30 a.m. Saturday, Detroit Police Chief James White. She was stabbed inside her home and got outside where she collapsed and died, White said. Her home was east of downtown.
About 1,000 people attended Woll’s funeral Sunday at Hebrew Memorial Chapel in Oak Park.
“She was also someone who just really believed in social justice, in equity, in just treating people with respect and fairness, no matter who they were, what their religion was, what their background was,” Chang said. “She just was an incredible person, she did so much work to try to bridge divides.”
Chang said Woll was a “huge ally” to the Muslim community and was one of the co-founders of a Muslim-Jewish unity organization.
“I’m hoping that the brutality of what happened to her will be something that is hopefully something that will be remembered less than how incredible she was as a human being and just the incredible impact that she had on so many people,” Chang said.
Investigators have identified several people of interest in Woll’s death, but no one who can be publicly declared a prime suspect, police said Monday.
White declined to disclose Woll’s connection to any people of interest during a news conference on Monday.
He emphasized again that Woll’s death doesn’t appear to be a result of antisemitism. She had worked for U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin and on the political campaign of attorney Dana Nessel, both Democrats.