Connect with us

RSS

Suspect charged with murder in death of Detroit synagogue president Samantha Woll

(JTA) — A 28-year-old man has been charged with the murder of Samantha Woll, the Detroit synagogue president who was found dead outside her home on Oct. 21.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kim L. Worthy identified the suspect as Michael Jackson-Bolanos, who was taken into custody on Sunday, according to NBC News. Worthy said there are “no facts to suggest” that the suspect knew Woll personally.

Worthy also said that the murder was not a hate crime. Claims had circulated in the hours and days after Woll’s killing that it was an antisemitic act connected to the Israel-Hamas war, which has been accompanied by a reported rise in antisemitism in the United States. But police have said since the early stages of the investigation that it did not appear to be a hate crime.

“There’s not a shred of evidence to suggest this was a hate crime,” Worthy said.

Woll, 40, had been found unresponsive near her house by police at 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 21 with evidence of multiple stab wounds and a trail of blood leading to her home. Worthy said investigators believe Jackson-Bolanos killed Woll during an act of larceny or home invasion, according to The Detroit News.

Jackson-Bolanos is the second suspect to be taken into custody in the investigation. Last month, another man had been held in custody and then released three days later with no charges or explanation.

Woll’s death drew national attention and caused an outpouring of grief in the local Jewish community and beyond. Woll was a Democratic activist and had been president of the non-denominational Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, one of the city of Detroit’s only remaining Jewish congregations, where she had spearheaded an ambitious expansion campaign.

Rabbi Asher Lopatin, the executive director of Detroit’s Jewish Community Relations Council/AJC, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the arrest is a “great relief.”

“The entire Detroit community, and frankly the entire world that came to love and respect the incredible person that Sam Woll was, felt that justice must come to the person who would perpetuate such a horrible crime and take away such a precious life,” Lopatin said. “In our terrible sadness Jewish community is grateful for the work of the police, and we are grateful that the police found absolutely no evidence that this was a hate crime directed towards any community.”


The post Suspect charged with murder in death of Detroit synagogue president Samantha Woll appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Continue Reading

RSS

Kurdish-led SDF Say Five Members Killed During Attack by Islamic State in Syria

Islamic State slogans painted along the walls of the tunnel was used by Islamic State militants as an underground training camp in the hillside overlooking Mosul, Iraq, March 4, 2017. Photo: via Reuters Connect.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said on Sunday that five of its members had been killed during an attack by Islamic State militants on a checkpoint in eastern Syria’s Deir el-Zor on July 31.

The SDF was the main fighting force allied to the United States in Syria during fighting that defeated Islamic State in 2019 after the group declared a caliphate across swathes of Syria and Iraq.

The Islamic State has been trying to stage a comeback in the Middle East, the West and Asia. Deir el-Zor city was captured by Islamic State in 2014, but the Syrian army retook it in 2017.

Continue Reading

RSS

Armed Groups Attack Security Force Personnel in Syria’s Sweida, Killing One, State TV Reports

People ride a motorcycle past a burned-out military vehicle, following deadly clashes between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes, and government forces, in Syria’s predominantly Druze city of Sweida, Syria, July 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

Armed groups attacked personnel from Syria’s internal security forces in Sweida, killing one member and wounding others, and fired shells at several villages in the violence-hit southern province, state-run Ekhbariya TV reported on Sunday.

The report cited a security source as saying the armed groups had violated the ceasefire agreed in the predominantly Druze region, where factional bloodshed killed hundreds of people last month.

Violence in Sweida erupted on July 13 between tribal fighters and Druze factions. Government forces were sent to quell the fighting, but the bloodshed worsened, and Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops in the name of the Druze.

The Druze are a minority offshoot of Islam with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Sweida province is predominantly Druze but is also home to Sunni tribes, and the communities have had long-standing tensions over land and other resources.

A US-brokered truce ended the fighting, which had raged in Sweida city and surrounding towns for nearly a week. Syria said it would investigate the clashes, setting up a committee to investigate the attacks.

The Sweida bloodshed last month was a major test for interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, after a wave of sectarian violence in March that killed hundreds of Alawite citizens in the coastal region.

Continue Reading

RSS

Netanyahu Urges Red Cross to Aid Gaza Hostages

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he spoke with the International Red Cross’s regional head, Julien Lerisson, and requested his involvement in providing food and medical care to hostages held in Gaza.

Continue Reading

Copyright © 2017 - 2023 Jewish Post & News