IN REMEMBRANCE EVENTS SET TO MARK YEAR SINCE PEARL'S ABDUCTION.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

Today's one-year anniversary of Wall Street reporter Daniel Pearl's abduction by Pakistani militants who later murdered him initiates a series of remembrances, from the San Fernando Valley where he grew up to the world he covered.

He is being honored by family and longtime friends, as well as by the foundation created in his name, which will hold services over several days next month throughout the country, in Canada and in Israel. Services in Los Angeles will be Feb. 20 at the Museum of Tolerance. (His death was confirmed Feb. 21.)

Pearl, a Birmingham High School honors student, was kidnapped while working on a story about a possible link between shoe-bomb suspect Richard Reid and the al-Qaida terrorist network.

His parents, Judea and Ruth, who live in Encino, were on a personal retreat, said Michelle Vazzano, a spokeswoman for the Daniel Pearl Foundation, which the Pearls head.

In a statement, Pearl's father said, ``We are convinced that our world will be strengthened and more secure when people of courage and goodwill stand together in solidarity to bear witness against terror and the anti-Semitic prejudice that killed our son.

``By bringing together people of different beliefs, building trust and uniting them in a common stand for sanity and humanity, our son's life - and even his untimely death - will make a difference.''

Birmingham High will remember Pearl, a 1981 graduate, privately, specifically in journalism classes, but has no public events scheduled, said Principal Doris Lasiter.

The school marked what would have been Pearl's 40th birthday on Oct. 10, by participating in the first annual Daniel Pearl Music Day, a worldwide event celebrated from his college alma mater, Stanford University, to Paris, where he was married, to Jerusalem. A scholarship will be awarded to a senior interested in international journalism this spring.

Lasiter said students were deeply affected by the music event, which was dedicated to cross-cultural awareness, friendship and cooperation.

``In journalism class, they talk about him ... what it means to be an international journalist, to go after a story and put everything into it,'' Lasiter said. ``That's a part of the legacy.''

Daniel Gill, a childhood friend who remains close to the family, said Pearl's wife, Mariane, has been doing well, and that their son, Adam, is ``great.''

``They (Pearl's parents) have their ups and downs, but mostly they're pretty good,'' he said. ``They're strong, and they're all very smart, and they want to make something good come out of it, to salvage something from it. They're working hard on the foundation that something positive will flow from it.''

Gill said Pearl is never far from his thoughts.

``I just moved, and I found a whole bunch of old letters from Danny and a couple of gifts,'' said Gill, who recently relocated from San Francisco to Topanga Canyon. ``It's been an extraordinarily difficult year obviously. It has been for the entire country.''

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said Pearl's murder ``personalized'' the terrorism that's infected the world, and helped Southern Californians focus on the broader issues exemplifying ``good versus evil.''

``You have a yardstick (the anniversary) to pause and remember why he was killed,'' Cooper said. ``They kidnapped an American journalist, and they butchered him because he was a Jew.''

Cooper said the Feb. 20 service is intended to reach beyond the Jewish community to other faiths in remembrance of Pearl.

There will be music, one of Pearl's great loves, as well as testimonials, including a number of dignitaries. The ceremony will culminate with the silent lighting of candles in the museum's plaza.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights agency will also observe Pearl's yahrtzeit, or the annual memorial of one beloved, over the Internet, encouraging people to send messages of solidarity to the Web site, www.wiesenthal.com.

``To let one family know it is not forgotten is very important,'' he said.

Other foundation-sponsored services will be Feb. 22 at Temple B'nai Jeshurun in New York and at Mishkenot Sha'ananim in Israel, where a national service will be conducted by the Jerusalem Foundation. A service on Feb. 24 will be held at Temple Beth Tzedec in Toronto.