It has been 5-1/2 months since journalist Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by Islamic militants in Pakistan. And not an hour goes by that his sister doesn’t think about what happened.
“We deal with it by being so close as a family,” said Michelle Pearl, who lives in San Francisco. The family is constantly in contact by phone and e-mail, she said. “Throwing our energy into this foundation in his memory has been a coping tool and a way to see positive and not focus on the horror.”
Pearl, 32, an epidemiologist who works for the state health department, has cut back her hours in order to serve as one of two vice presidents of the Daniel Pearl Foundation (the other is her older sister, Tamara).
She made an appearance at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival last week during a screening of a film about Israeli journalist Amira Haas, which was dedicated to her brother’s memory.
At San Francisco’s Castro Theatre, she read a letter the family has received by a teenager who said she was so inspired by Pearl’s story that she was going to become a journalist.
And in a subsequent interview, Pearl told of the numerous projects taking place throughout the world, all undertaken by people who did not know her brother personally but were moved by his story.
A synagogue near the New Jersey town where Daniel Pearl was born is naming its new educational wing after him. A woman in Italy made a sculpture in his honor, and she is hoping to honor him at the 2006 Olympics there.
“I could go on and on about the ways people of all different backgrounds have been moved,” Pearl said. “We’ve gotten so much mail, particularly from journalists and citizens of Pakistan who were so appalled at what happened.”
The Pearl family established the foundation to promote cross-cultural understanding and dialogue, particularly between Eastern and Western cultures.
“We’re hoping to harness all the positive energy that’s come out of this,” said Pearl. “It’s really an opportunity to motivate people to overcome their differences, seek their commonalities and really hear each other.”
The organization’s honorary advisory board includes Stanford University President John Hennessey, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, violinist Itzhak Perlman, financier George Soros and former President Bill Clinton.
The foundation is based in Encino, near his parents’ Southern California home.
For more information about the Daniel Pearl Foundation, go to www.danielpearl.org