BELLEVUE – About 1,300 people gathered at a suburban temple Monday for the funeral of Pamela Waechter, who was shot with five other women at Seattle’s Jewish Federation office last week. Mourners said they hoped her violent death would prompt actions of peace.
“If Pam could have known that because of all these things she did and all these things she was that she would be taken violently and tragically from this Earth … she would not have changed one thing about the way she lived her life,” Rabbi James Mirel told the mourners at Temple B’nai Torah. “She wasn’t intrepid or fearless; none of us are. But she knew what was right.”
Waechter, 58, director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle’s annual fundraising campaign, was killed when a man forced his way into the office on Friday afternoon and began shooting, saying he was angry about the war in Iraq and U.S. support for Israel. Police arrested Naveed Afzal Haq, who was ordered held on $50 million bail pending charges. The conditions of the five other victims were said to be improving Monday, but two remained in serious condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
At the funeral, friends and family praised Waechter’s “gorgeous spirit.” Many mourners wept, dabbing their eyes as Cantor David Serkin-Poole sang the 23rd Psalm in a soaring, haunting voice. Others gazed at Waechter’s photo on the cover of the funeral program.
Waechter’s daughter, Nicole Waechter Guzman, read a letter she composed to her mother.
“I hope your being taken from us will spur on actions of peace,” she said.
Waechter’s brother, Chuck Hall, said that before the service he took his family to the downtown Seattle building where she died. He found the number of letters and flowers left outside comforting, especially the many cards from area Muslims.
“The way we can honor her memory is to live the way she lived,” Hall said. “Pam loved people. She was understanding to people.”
Haq, 30, was raised in the Tri-Cities area of south-central Washington. His father, an engineer, founded an Islamic center there, but Haq did not often practice the religion, acquaintances said. In fact, the Word of Faith Center, an evangelical Christian congregation in Kennewick, said Haq was baptized at a church-affiliated men’s gathering late last year.
“He never came to the church and was not a church member,” Word of Faith Center secretary Stacy Scott said Monday. “He only attended the home meetings three times.”
Larry Stephenson, who was representing Haq on a recent lewd conduct charge, stemming from an incident in which he allegedly exposed himself to women at a shopping mall, said Haq suffers from bipolar disorder.
U.S. Attorney John McKay said Monday that an FBI investigation continues, and that federal hate crime charges could accompany state murder charges.
Mayor Greg Nickels attended the funeral, as did some local Muslim leaders. Jawad Khaki, president of the Ithna-asheri Muslim Association of the Northwest, noted that his organization often worked with Temple B’nai Torah on charity projects, such as building Habitat for Humanity homes.
“The teaching of Islam is that when one innocent life is killed, it is as if all humanity is killed,” he said.
Waechter’s close friends and family later attended a private service and burial at a cemetery.
A simultaneous funeral service took place in Minneapolis, where Waechter was raised Lutheran. She converted to Judaism when she was married, and she and her husband moved to Seattle in 1979. After raising their two children, Waechter graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in nutrition.
Waechter, who later divorced, served as president of Temple B’nai Torah from 1988-90.
Before joining the staff at the federation, Waechter worked for four years at Jewish Family Service, where she managed a food bank and served as an emergency services caseworker and volunteer coordinator, according to the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle’s Web site.
In her eight years at the federation, Waechter’s jobs included outreach coordinator, director of special events and various fundraising posts.
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