Shooting at the Seattle Federation—one year later

A year ago, Naveed Afzal Haq shot up the offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle in a rampage that killed one worker and seriously injured five others.

I’d recently started as Web Director for JewishJournal.com and rushed to figure out how to add a breaking news story to our home page.

After I did the news thing (“If it bleeds, it leads”) I began to wonder what kind of security precautions we had at The Journal’s headquarters in a Koreatown office block. Noone knew then if it was an isolated incident (it was) or part of a coordinated attack against Jewish institutions across the country.

Was a combination door lock, security camera and intercom system enough? Should we hire a guard? Was I a paranoid fool with delusions of grandeur AND a persecution complex?

Even paranoid people can have enemies, of course, so I still stop, look and listen when I navigate the building’s eerily silent carpeted hallways.

But I’ve not taken off the GI Star of David I wear on a chain around my neck.

And I never will.

—Dennis Wilen