In this new year, Nayeed Haq will face murder and hate crime charges for his alleged killing of Pamela Waechter. If these names are not familiar to you that’s no surprise. But the name Mel Gibson most likely still resonates with you because in America, Mel Gibson stays in the news and Pamela Waechter doesn’t.

Mr. Gibson whose drunken outburst in July blamed Jews for all the wars of the world, was perhaps the most overhyped subject of 2006. Mr. Gibson and his anti-Semitic tirade was the subject of 1,211 news clips in a Nexis search as of last Wednesday.

Practically forgotten was the slaying of Waechter, the director of the annual fund-raising campaign at the Jewish Federation of Seattle. She was shot on July 28, 2006. Prosecutors have charged Mr. Haq with the shooting. A Nexis search last week of the victim’s name returned 214 stories. A search of the assailant’s name surfaced 150 news clips. Even less well-known than Waechter are those wounded in the attack — Dayna Klein, Carol Goldman, Christina Rexroad, Layla Bush, and Cheryl Stumbo.

In our fame-obsessed society, the excessive attention we devote to celebrity crowds out our ability to focus on criminal, hateful acts of violence. The press buries stories of crazed gunmen, particularly those of Islamic background and their Jewish targets. It’s clear by now that the press considers such acts of violence dog-bites-man stories.

Our deafness to the Seattle story foreshadows an unwillingness to see real threats within our midst in the coming year and blocks out an inspiring tale of renewal in the face of tragedy. In the spirit of counteracting this tendency, here is the follow-up to the story.

The biggest recent news in the case is the announcement by the prosecuting attorney for King County, Norm Maleng, that Mr. Haq will face murder and hate crime charges but will not face the death penalty. Mr. Maleng opted to pursue life imprisonment for the alleged shooter on the basis of his mental health history to which there was a 10-year long trail of medical records and of bewildering actions, including an apparent conversion to Christianity. Mr. Maleng made the announcement, via a press release, less than a week before Christmas — always an effective means of tamping down a potentially controversial matter.

But the veteran prosecutor, elected in 1978, also went out of his way to prepare the community for his decision and has won praise because of it. He met with the families of the victims and religious leaders. Among them was Rabbi Moshe Kletenik, the rabbi of Bikur Cholim-Machzikay Hadath Congregation. Rabbi Kletenik’s congregation includes about 300 members of Seattle’s Orthodox community. “The prosecutor himself says it is a hate crime. And he considers it one of the worst or the worst he has encountered in his 28 year career as a prosecutor,” Rabbi Kletenik says. “I think the entire community has pulled together at a time of tragedy.”

Further embedded in the story is Pamela Waechter’s commitment to the Jewish community in Seattle. Federations are the backbone of the communal system of Jewish fund raising, earmarking money to Israel, international causes, and local concerns. Amid great enthusiasm one decade ago, Seattle hosted the annual convention of the parent group of its federation, the General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations — now the United Jewish Communities. And it was to the cause of Jewish Seattle — its synagogues, its housing of the elderly, its commitment to Israel — that Waechter, born a Lutheran in Minnesota who converted to the Jewish faith of her husband, devoted herself.

Since July, the federation has been addressing the physical damage sustained in the attack. The offices are now located in a temporary location. An extensive renovation of the building where the attack occurred is taking place. Of the five employees injured in the shooting spree, two have already returned to work and another two are planning to come back soon. Only one of this group of five is Jewish.

“Our spirits are buoyed that our non-Jewish staff is committed enough to our mission to come back,” the federation’s vice president for finance and administration, Nancy Geiger, says.

The office of a Seattle-based syndicated talk-show host, film critic, and conservative commentator, Michael Medved, is close to the site of the shooting. Mr. Medved maintains that the response both of the broader community and the federation workers sends out an important, but little-noticed message. “The Jewish community is not isolated,” Mr. Medved says.

Back around the time of the Jewish New Year, the federation held its big annual fund-raising dinner, an event that Waechter would have been deeply involved with. Under normal circumstances, the “Repairing the World” dinner would have required a large dollar donation in order to attend it. Organizers decided to open it up with no minimum gift required. Dignitaries such as Washington’s governor and Seattle’s mayor attended. “We raised more money that night than we ever have raised to our campaign,” Ms. Geiger says.

There was another ray of hope. Dayna Klein, the woman who dialed 911 to alert police to the shooting, was pregnant when she was wounded. In early December, she had a baby boy and chose the first letter of Waechter’s first name to find a middle name for her son. “The baby’s middle name, Paz, is Spanish for ‘peace,’ and honors the woman who died that day, Pamela Waechter,” the Seattle Times reported in December.

It is apparent that the well-meaning people of Seattle have banded together to heal the physical and emotional wounds from the attack of this summer. Their story will serve as a soothing balm to future communities that encounter similar acts of violence. There will be more Mr. Haqs and organized terror groups in the future. To the danger they pose we must be at least as vigilant as a drunken actor. To any victims, due attention must also be paid.

Mr. Gitell (gitell.com) is a contributing editor of The New York Sun.