Uri Ephraim Pearlman was born on May 7th 1970. He was the second of my eight children,
my daughter Sara being the eldest. He grew up tall, muscular and handsome,
(Here's a pic of me
and him under an Israeli waterfall, a very special memory...) with a love of sports, especially karate.
(He achieved a purple belt shortly before his death).
He was married to Leora, and had two beautiful
little daughters,
Raizy and Batsheva (or Shevi). They are now aged seventeen and a half, and sixteen.
He had lived in Jerusalem for many years, both as a bachelor and as a married man,
but had returned to London to study.
Here is a short video clip showing Uri and Raizy in our
Jerusalem house in realmedia format,
so not too big,(about 3 mb) 2 years before he died.
He was attending Westminster University as a mature student,and had only completed
one term in Urban Estate Management, when he decided to go back to Israel
during his winter holidays. He was travelling alone; Leora and the girls had gone
to stay with her parents who live in Gateshead in the north of England.
Uri spent a week studying in a "yeshivah" or Talmudical College in Jerusalem,
which he loved, and had been staying with his cousins, Devorah and Meir Rabinowitz.
He was last seen by the family on Monday 1st January 1996, when he told them
he was going to Tiberias to visit the graves of great Rabbis to pray and meditate there.
He was never seen alive by any one of us again. His wrecked car was found at
the bottom of a 20 metre ravine on the Jerusalem-Jericho
road on Saturday (Sabbath)6th January by a passing Bedouin tribesman. The accident
most probably happened on Thursday 4th January, and if it hadn't been for that Bedouin,
he might have lain there for weeks, unnoticed from the road. He had gone straight over
a hairpin bend; the velocity of the speed had carried the car 60 metres in the air before it
made its final, fatal plunge. He was thrown clear and (we all fervently hope)
killed instantly without any long suffering.
Written on 12th February 1996 - We have just returned from our week in Israel.
It was both stressful and comforting. Visiting the accident site gave us a much clearer
indication of why and how it happened..and most interesting of all..we actually found
the bedouin who found our son! Read "The Bedouin"
to get all the information. I have written it as "faction" - all true
but written almost as a story. It was both traumatic and healing all at once..
and we were very pleased that we did it.
My daughter-in-law Leora remarried on Wednesday 4th March 1998 to Aaron Stefansky
from Lakewood NJ USA. We went up to Gateshead on Tyne together
with my married kids. The wedding was very small and intimate, and
very emotional for all concerned. We were regarded as some kind
of heroes for attending this wedding, but we didn't feel like heroes,
only loving parents and grandparents wanting to see Leora and her
daughters happy.
We hope to keep in touch with them all now they live in Lakewood,
and visit when we can. My two little granddaughters,
Raizy and Shevi, were bridesmaids, and
Aaron has a teenage daughter, Channa Tziril,who was also a bridesmaid. Here
is a photo of the new couple The new couple now have five children of their own,
three girls and two boys.
