Downtown Detroit Synagogue Names Building After Slain President Samantha Woll

On a toasty, sunny Sunday afternoon tailored made for a happy summer occasion, a crowd gathered on Griswold Street in Detroit, outside the Downtown Synagogue, to dedicate the bullding to its President Samantha Woll, who was slain last Oct. 21 at her home in the Lafayette Park neighborhood.

The building now bears the name: "Samantha Woll Center for Jewish Detroit."

"Her memory brings me so much joy and her absence is surreal and so wrong," said the synagogue's Rabbi Ariana Silverman, a close friend of Woll's, who was one of a host of speakers. "We are particularly grateful to Samantha's family for enabling us to remember Sam every time we walk into the building."

Another speaker, current synagogue President Richard Wiener, talked about Woll, 40, in endearing terms, describing her smile as something that "could melt granite." Woll's family attended the event.

Other speakers included Woll's younger sister, Dr. Monica Woll Rosen, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Jewish Federation President Gary Torgow and City Councilman Coleman A. Young II.

The party, that included a band and food, was also dedicated to the completion of the roof deck for gatherings.

The gathering came almost exactly one year after Woll spoke at the reopening celebration outside the synagogue last August after nearly $6 million in renovations.

It also came just weeks after defendant Michael Jackson-Bolanos was cleared of all the serious charges in the Woll murder. He was found guilty of lying to investigators and sentenced to 18 months to 15 years.