The Murder of Samantha Woll and the Irony of ‘Anti-Semitic Hate Crimes’

When Detroit jewish leader Samantha Woll was murdered in October 2023; jews immediately began bleating hysterically about it being ‘linked’ to the events of 7th October in Israel and the beginning of the still ongoing Israeli-Hamas War in Gaza and was thus ‘motivated by anti-Semitism’ and a ‘hate crime’. (1)

This narrative very quickly fell apart after it was revealed after a local black man named Michael Jackson-Bolanos was arrested, and it was discovered it was a crime of opportunity and not motivated by ‘anti-Semitism’ at all. (2)

Now in a significant twist to this story Jackson-Bolanos has been acquitted of the charge of first-degree murder and the presumably largely black jury was deadlocked over the secondary charge of felony murder and home invasion in July 2024. (3)

This has provoked an interesting conundrum for jews as they’ve been arguing that the black community have been ‘the victims of an institutionally racist justice system’ for decades (as Woll herself did) and now they are trying to deal with being the victims of the epidemic black crime and violence without saying it.

As a result, responses to this situation have been quite… shall we say… varied with Shira Heisler – a friend of Woll’s – writing that:

‘Sam was critical of the American criminal legal system; she understood its racist underpinnings and considered it to be fundamentally flawed. It has the power to punish but not to restore. It leaves no room for nuance, preventing us from seeing anyone involved in their full humanity, including victims, people on trial, witnesses and any participants in the court. It disproportionately impacts people of color, particularly Black people, here in Detroit. It creates illusions of safety and justice, while siphoning away resources from the solutions that would actually heal violence at its roots.’ (4)

And JTA similarly writing how:

‘Woll’s family said in a statement following the verdict that they were “displeased by the outcome.”

“We are stunned and deeply saddened by the outcome of this trial, as there is overwhelming evidence that Michael Jackson-Bolanos took our beloved Samantha’s life,” the statement said. “Samantha spent much of her life working toward justice, and it pains us that justice for Samantha has not yet been served. We will not rest in our pursuit of justice on her behalf.”

“This senseless tragedy leaves us with holes in our hearts that will never heal,” they added. “But Samantha believed in a world of kindness and peace. We hope that as a society, we can continue to strive for good in Samantha’s honor.”’ (5)

Conversely Baruch Green at ‘VIN News’ all but screeched that it was an ‘anti-Semitic hate crime’ that was being ‘covered up’ by the Detroit police (6) and Irit Tratt shrieking in ‘The Algemeiner’ that:

‘Detroit police continue to claim there is no evidence that Woll’s murder was motivated by antisemitism.

At the time of her killing, Woll was serving as President of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, and was active in Democratic politics. Incidentally, her murder occurred in Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)’s district, where, just days prior to Woll’s body being discovered, the antisemitic lawmaker launched into another anti-Israel diatribe and falsely accused Israel of a deadly strike on a Gaza hospital that she said killed over 500 people (this was proven to be a complete lie on every account).

In November, Tlaib spoke about her “dear friend” on the House floor, calling Woll a deeply loved member of the “social justice community.”

Tlaib’s performative sorrow does little to deflect from acknowledging the Congresswoman’s outsize role in fomenting antisemitism. Moreover, the dearth of media noise and the judicial dismissiveness attached to Woll’s murder case comes against a backdrop of rising violence targeting Jews nationwide. In New York, hundreds of miles from Michigan, Orthodox Jews are routinely subjected to assault, harassment, and intimidation by criminals engaging in antisemitic thuggery.’ (7)

We can see in the above the two very different reactions from jewish groups and individuals; the interesting point is they simply refuse to name the elephant in the room which is the massively disproportionate level of black crime and violence.

Instead, they seek to ‘explain’ the decision of the jury in Detroit and offer ‘concerned’ commentary (aka concern trolling) blaming the ‘racist justice system’ rather than… well… the criminals.

While conversely other jews simply incoherently shriek that all this is all due to ‘anti-Semitism’ that is apparently utter pervasive in American society and seek to lay the blame against anyone – in the above instance Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib – that they dislike and can plausibly bring into the equation by some tangential and unrelated fact.

What all this indicates is that – like in jewish neighbourhoods of New York and New Jersey which they often share with blacks both historically and currently – the widespread and largely unchecked tide of black crime and violence is now hitting the authors of its spread but unlike European Americans the jewish communities have their own police forces that answer only to the rabbis not to the secular authorities (aka the Shomrim) which the lack of probably meant the difference between life and death to Samantha Woll.

The truth is however this trend is on the rise (8) and will continue to get worse as time goes on.

Karma is a bitch: isn’t it?

References

(1) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/antisemitism-and-the-murder-of-samantha

(2) https://www.timesofisrael.com/detroit-police-no-evidence-yet-of-antisemitism-in-murder-of-synagogue-president/

(3) https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/wayne-county/2024/07/18/samantha-woll-jury-verdict-felony-murder-of-synagogue-president-michael-jackson-bolanos/74340878007/; https://nypost.com/2024/07/19/us-news/suspect-cleared-of-premeditated-murder-of-jewish-leader-samantha-woll/

(4) https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2024/07/25/samantha-woll-detroit-murder-trial-lafayette-park/74529563007/

(5) https://www.jta.org/2024/07/19/united-states/suspect-in-killing-of-detroit-synagogue-leader-samantha-woll-cleared-of-premeditated-murder-but-could-face-2nd-trial

(6) https://vinnews.com/2024/07/26/detroit-jews-filled-with-love-sadness-after-verdict-in-trial-of-samantha-wolls-alleged-killer/

(7) https://www.algemeiner.com/2024/08/19/the-justice-systems-disgusting-indifference-to-murder-and-attacks-on-jews/

(8) For example: https://nypost.com/2024/07/30/us-news/nyc-mayor-eric-adams-hosts-conference-to-combat-unprecedented-levels-of-hate-crimes-in-big-apple/