Slain journalist’s father speaks at local temples




JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers REMEMBERING DANIEL PEARL- Temple Etz Chaim Rabbi Richard Spiegel, right, listens as Dr. Judea Pearl, father of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, answers questions from the standing-room-only audience during his lecture at Temple Etz Chaim in Thousand Oaks last Saturday. Pearl and his wife Ruth Pearl are co-editors of the book

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers REMEMBERING DANIEL PEARL- Temple Etz Chaim Rabbi Richard Spiegel, right, listens as Dr. Judea Pearl, father of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, answers questions from the standing-room-only audience during his lecture at Temple Etz Chaim in Thousand Oaks last Saturday. Pearl and his wife Ruth Pearl are co-editors of the book “I am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl.”


Judea Pearl stood at the lectern, powerful and vulnerable at the same instant.

After the tragedy of his son Daniel’s murder, Pearl has tried, as a father and a human being, to make the world a better place.

As the Jewish New Year and the sixth anniversary of the 9/ 11 attacks approached, Pearl lectured Saturday night about being Jewish in a post-9/11 world at Temple Etz Chaim in Thousand Oaks.

Pearlc aptivatedthe crowd of about 450 by reciting his poetry and discussing complex passages from the Torah. He silenced the audience by singing in his sonorous Hebrew. He made people laugh by sprinkling in a few clever jokes.

Pearl, 71, made every one in attendance reflect about their own lives by discussing the loss of his 38yearold son. An esteemed journalist for The Wall Street Journal, Daniel Pearl was murdered by terrorists in Karachi, Pakistan, in February 2002.

After his lecture Judea Pearl signed copies of his book, “I Am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl,” and stressed two components of his message.

“One is to the Muslim world. To the Muslim world: ‘We are not your enemies,'” Pearl said. “My second message is to young Jewish Americans: ‘You have something positive to offer the world. You’re expected to deliver it, and you will.'”

Encino residents Judea Pearl and his wife, Ruth, Daniel’s mother, helped form the Daniel Pearl Foundation, a nonprofit organization which works to achieve peace and understanding among people of different religious beliefs and backgrounds through journalism, music and dialogue.

Pearl, who had already spoken at 15 other such engagements this calendar year, will address the congregation at Temple Beth Haverim in Agoura Hills at 11 a.m. Sat., Sept. 22, Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews.

Pearl’s Sept. 8 speech was well received. “It was fantastic, absolutely brilliant,” Rabbi Richard Spiegel said.

“He’s a very impressive guy,” said Jeff Finn of Simi Valley, a member of the congregation at Etz Chaim. “Two things stood out to me. One, how he responded to the horrible tragedy of his son in a positive way. . . . Secondly, I agree with him on how he recognizes the true nature of the terror we’re facing. Since 9/11, the initial impact has been dulled for a lot of Americans. We face a real battle ahead.”

Pearl, a prominent computer science professor at UCLA, eloquently talked about his struggle to understand and cope with his son’s death by turning to the Torah. Pearl discussed the passage in which Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son, Isaac.

He said he had discovered a new personal message, which he paraphrased from the ancient story. Believing in God is believing in a set of ideals, values and principles. Sacrificing in the name of God- for those principles God represents- goes against the very foundation of which one believes. It is through preserving life, not sacrificing it, that civilization- that humanity- will flourish.

“Living by principles is a dangerous enterprise in our world,” Pearl said.

Pearl described his son’s last words as filled with hope and pride.

“He looked straight into the eyes of evil and said, ‘My name is Daniel Pearl. My father is Jewish. My mother is Jewish. And I am Jewish,'” Pearl said. “He did not say it with defiance. He said it in his usual matteroffactness way.”

In his last free words caught on camera, Pearl talked about his greatgrandfather fleeing Poland to Israel with 25 other families and rebuilding the ancient city of Bnei Brak, a desert wasteland that nomads avoided. Bnei Brak, a small town east of Tel Aviv, is now Israel’s most densely populated city. The majority of its 150,000 residents are ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Perhaps Pearl’s greatest gift was that in the face of imminent death, he maintained his humanity. His humanity shimmered brightest in that one little family story.

“One’s heritage is the source of one’s strength,” Judea Pearl said, “but only through diversity can we recognize a common humanity in others.”

For more information about the Daniel Pearl Foundation, go to danielpearl.org.

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