Judea Pearl to light memorial flame in memory of son Daniel

Judea Pearl, the father of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl, will light a memorial flame on Monday at a ceremony commemorating Jews who were murdered around the world for being Jewish since the establishment of the State of Israel.

Pearl is an Israeli-born computer scientist and a recipient of the Turing Award, a top prize given annually in his field.

Also present will be Daniel Pearl’s mother, Ruth Pearl, his two sisters, his widow, Mariane Pearl, and his son Adam Pearl, born several months after his father’s murder.

Daniel Pearl, a Jewish correspondent for The Wall Street Journal who held dual Israeli-American citizenship, was beheaded by Islamist terrorists in Pakistan while researching a story about ties between “shoe bomber” Richard Reid and al-Qaida.

Pearl’s kidnapping and subsequent murder shocked America, and his last words, affirming his Jewishness, became widely quoted.

“My father’s Jewish, my mother’s Jewish, I’m Jewish. My family follows Judaism. We’ve made numerous family visits to Israel,” Pearl was recorded saying before his murder.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post by phone from his hotel in the capital on Saturday evening, Pearl said that he was honored to light the memorial flame and that by doing so he felt that he was “fulfilling a promise to Danny to convey his last words to the people in Israel and to the people of the world.”

He said that holding the ceremony in Jerusalem was especially important because it is the city in which his son had his bar mitzva.

“I think I’m closing the circle here,” he said.

 I'm very pleased that Professor Pearl has come here to light the flame. It is truly an appropriate memorial.