The Jewish Agency’s mission is to inspire Jews throughout the world to connect with their people, heritage, and land, and empower them to build a thriving Jewish future and a strong Israel. And part of that mission, unfortunately, is facing terror that threatens the Jewish people. The Fund for the Victims of Terror is one way the Jewish Agency helps victims who have suffered a terrorist attack.

Prof. Judea and Ruth Pearl, the parents of Daniel Pearl, understand what it means to suffer at the hands of terror. As they lit the memorial flame at the Israel's Yom HaZikaron, Pearl told reporters after the commemoration that he had prayed for the moment when he would have the honor to read Daniel’s last words uttered before his death, in Jerusalem.

“My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, I'm Jewish," Pearl said in the later-released video of his brutal death.

Daniel was an American Jew who also held Israel citizenship. In 2002, he was researching a story in Karachi, Pakistan for the Wall Street Journal. He was abducted by militant Islamic fundamentalists. Nine days later his captors beheaded him.

The memorial flame is also the flame of Jewish pride and the strength of spirit; a collective pledge that terror and evil will be overcome, and that our grandchildren will enjoy a better world.

Pearl said that when Danny looked into his captives' camera, he showed the world that the fight for existence, and the right to a proud existence, is a daily battle for a Jewish man in the 21st century.

“I represent three generations of victims of hatred," Judea said in his Memorial Day speech. "My grandfather and grandmother were killed in Auschwitz, I was saved by a miracle from genocide in 1948, and the murder of our son Daniel marks the latest round of victims of xenophobia."

This is Prof. Judea Pearl's Yom HaZikaron message. That "the memorial flame is also the flame of Jewish pride and the strength of spirit; a collective pledge that terror and evil will be overcome, and that our grandchildren will enjoy a better world."

Pearl says he, his wife, and the Daniel Pearl Foundation work round-the-clock "against the hatred that took our son's life." In his writings and speeches, he says he is merely giving voice to commonly-felt anti-hatred sentiments.

Daniel was 38 when he was killed. Several months later his wife Mariane gave birth to their son, Adam, who, together with his mother, grandparents, aunts and cousins commemorated Daniel's memory at The Jewish Agency ceremony.