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Obituary: Dr. Abe Fuks, 78, transformed medical education in Montreal—with a dedication to friendship and Yiddishkeit
As a professor who insisted on placing the notion of personhood at the centre of the clinician-patient relationship in the medical school curriculum, Dr. Abraham “Abe” Fuks made an impact on generations of health professionals in his hometown and beyond.
More than half a century after earning his own degree from McGill University—where he ultimately served as Faculty of Medicine dean from 1995 to 2006—Fuks died in Montreal on Dec. 1, at age 78.
A leading researcher in immunology, Fuks also made great and enduring contributions to the understanding of tumour biology, type 1 diabetes, and clinical trial ethics. His work shaped the evolution of medical education in Canada, beginning with McGill’s medical curriculum, notably introducing the Physicianship component, whose courses and modules emphasized humanism in medical training.
Teaching, he argued, should not just look at fixing and curing, but also true healing and empathy.
After conducting biochemistry and molecular biology research at Harvard University, where he also taught courses, Fuks returned to McGill to serve as a professor in Medicine, Oncology and Pathology.
Subsequently, he was instrumental in reshaping the school’s medical infrastructure by organizing the 1997 merger of the Montreal General, Royal Victoria and Montreal Children’s hospitals—along with the Chest and Neurological institutes—to create the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC).
Despite this era of austerity and repeated punishing budgetary constraints during his tenure, Fuks still managed to endow chairs and boost faculty numbers while expanding the biomedical research facilities at McGill.
Lending his talent to numerous committees and initiatives, he was affectionately dubbed the “philosopher dean” for his renowned humanistic approach to patient care and generous demeanour.
Fuks prescribed of listening as an obligatory skill set for doctors-in-training amid a modern teaching-hospital environment that is increasingly a place of short-term admissions and gauged and rewarded for even shorter stays.
The slew of professional and personal kudos he received from peers were capped with being awarded the Order of Canada in 2018. But according to one friend of 50 years, Fuks still kept the important things in life sacred.
“Yiddishkeit and friendship, friendship, friendship,” were his priorities according to former city councillor Abe Gushonor. “With all the people he knew, all that he was involved in, he believed in the importance of staying close.”
The two met through the Yiddish Theatre when “we were much, much younger,” laughed Gonshor, “back when Dora Wasserman first set out to create this theatre that created unchanged friendships that lasted forever.”
Fuks was one of the pillars of the group, performing with his sister Sylvia in many productions.
During the 18 years after ending his stint as dean, Fuks remained a committed mentor, seen regularly on campus, ready to chat with students or faculty, lend an ear or a dose of wisdom when needed—always with a smile, sharply dressed, sporting his signature bowties.
Those who had “the privilege of his collegiality or friendship were fortunate to share time and experience with a special human being,” wrote Myer Bick, president emeritus of the Jewish General Hospital Foundation.
“His character encompassed the rare combination of qualities of a brilliant mind, understanding of the human condition, humility and of course a sharp wit.”
A few years after he helped launch the White Coat Ceremony for medical students, Fuks was honoured by the Douglas Research Centre, telling an audience a highlight of his leadership was working with successful young people, which he likened to “academic parenthood.”
“He was the most incredible listener and had the unbelievable power of information retention,” Gonshor recalled. “He would remember things I told him 40 years ago in great detail, and because he listened so well, he gave the best advice. Any person that ever interacted with him, notice that he was focused on that person, and very humble and compassionate.
“He never boasted about his achievements and with all the things he did and all the things he’s accomplished, it was never about him. It was always about the people around him.”
Fuks also had a keen understanding and passion for relations between institutions, donors, and wider communities, and helped sound the alarm about Quebec City’s recent large-scale Bill 15 health reform, which would dramatically alter institutional governance imposing a new level of remote bureaucracy over local leadership.
A year before his death, in his poignant but folksy critique, Fuks told a Montreal audience of healthcare professionals, advocates and politicians that hospitals and other establishments are not bureaucratic agencies but rather “social-cultural entities of communities.”
Rather than talk about organizational charts, he helped direct Quebecers’ attention to the perils of losing local voices on boards, whom he called the “glue between institution and professionals, between hospitals and communities they serve.” That’s where he said, change happened, where spikes in conditions amid local populations are discussed, bold initiatives conceived, and member are dispatched to seek donor support, not by far-away life-tenured bureaucrats.
“Giving ultimate authority over healthcare to someone with zero frontline knowledge,” he famously warned, “is like asking me to run the Bank of Canada.”
Expressing his own admiration for his peers, in 2023 he created an Academy of Exemplary Physicians along with a video interview series with each to honour their contributions.
Born in Germany in the shadow of the Holocaust and brought to Canada as a baby, he grew up in a Parc Avenue triplex above his parents’ store.
Edna Mendelson, an extended cousin—and also a child of a survivor—recalls him as a “legend” for providing support to her family when they arrived in Montreal in the late 1960s.
“The family bond and the deep Holocaust survivors’ bond was thick and unshakeable,” she said.
Abe Gonshor lost his 24-year-old daughter Sarah to a very rare form of cancer, and his friend Abe was very moved by her experience and suffering through pain during diagnostic tests.
“For years afterward he carried a letter Sarah wrote about what she felt doctors should know, something that inspired Abe to stress that importance to medical students before they became doctors, learning how to listen, how to speak.”
But mostly Gonshor remembers simple times together, as they met for Friday night dinners and Saturday morning coffee, along with regular Sunday brunches in the west end of Montreal.
“With all the things he was doing—teaching, schools, hospitals, foundations, committees and philanthropy—he found time to be with his friends. He always was with us. How much we’ll miss him, and how much the world will.
“There’s such an impact. I don’t know if words can explain it.”
The post Obituary: Dr. Abe Fuks, 78, transformed medical education in Montreal—with a dedication to friendship and Yiddishkeit appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Paris Basketball Fan Group Vows to Boycott Upcoming Game With Israel Due to Hamas War
The Eiffel Tower in Paris is lit up in the colors of the Israeli flag. Photo: Reuters/Benoit Tessier
A historic fan group of the French professional basketball club Paris Basketball announced last week their decision to boycott the team’s upcoming Euroleague game against Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv because of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Middle East.
Maccabi Tel Aviv and Paris Basketball are set to compete in the 22nd round of the EuroLeague at the Adidas Arena Porte de la Chapelle in Paris on Jan. 16. The fan group KOP Parisii, which has nearly 200 members, said it is still unaware of the security measures that will be taken for the game nor the number of Maccabi supporters who will travel to Paris to attend the showdown. Nevertheless, the group and its board have “decided not to make this match a usual match and especially not to act as if nothing has happened,” they said in an English and French language press release last week.
“We will not animate the KOP stand for this match. There will be no drums, no chants, no tarpaulins,” KOP Parisii added. “We do not wish to politicize the KOP or create divisions in our ranks. But there are some things that go further than a simple basketball game … Our values and the values of humanity in general. Today, KOP Parisii has nearly 200 members, and unlike previous years, our voice counts. We thank you for your understanding.”
Paris Basketball is currently tied for third place in the EuroLeague while Tel Aviv is currently in 16th place.
This was not the first time that French athletes and sports fans used the realm of athletics to protest against Israel.
In mid-December, supporters of Nanterre 92 — a professional basketball club from the French city of Nanterre — interrupted a Basketball Champions League game in France against Israel’s Hapoel Holon by running onto the court while carrying Palestinian flags.
In November, fans of the Paris Saint-Germain soccer team unveiled a massive “Free Palestine” banner before kick-off of the team’s UEFA Champions League game against Atletico Madrid. It took place eight days before France competed against Israel in Paris in a UEFA Nations League game, which pro-Palestinian activists pressured officials to cancel because of Israel’s participation.
The post Paris Basketball Fan Group Vows to Boycott Upcoming Game With Israel Due to Hamas War first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Adrien Brody Wins Golden Globe for Lead Role as Hungarian Jewish Architect, Holocaust Survivor in ‘The Brutalist’
Adrien Brody, winner of Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama for “The Brutalist” poses at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, US, Jan. 5, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
American actor Adrian Brody won best actor in a motion picture drama at the Golden Globes in Beverly Hills on Sunday night for his lead role as Hungarian Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor László Tóth in “The Brutalist.”
The drama, which follows Tóth’s life after he survives the Holocaust and emigrates to the US, also won best drama film and best director for Brady Corbet, making the film one of the top winners at the Golden Globes this year. In his acceptance speech on stage, Brody thanked his parents, who were in the audience, for fostering his growth as an artist. Brody’s mother, photographer Sylvia Plachy, and her parents fled Hungary in 1956 during the Hungarian revolution and eventually immigrated to the US. Brody’s father is Jewish and the actor’s maternal grandmother was a Czech Jew.
“You always hold me up,” he told his mother. “I often credit my mother for her influence on me as an artist, but dad, you are the foundation of this family and all this love that I receive flows back to you.” Brody additionally talked about how he has a personal connection to the movie from independent studio A24.
“The character’s journey [in ‘The Brutalist’] is very reminiscent of my mother’s and my ancestral journey of fleeing the horrors of war and coming to this great country,” he said. “And I owe so much to my mother and my grandparents for their sacrifice. And although I do not know fully how to express all of the challenges that you have faced and experienced, and the many people who have struggled immigrating to this country, I hope that this work stands to lift you up a bit and to give you a voice. I’m so grateful and I will cherish this moment forever.”
In the category of best actor in a motion picture drama, Brody beat Timothee Chalamet for his role as Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” Daniel Craig for “Queer,” Colman Domingo in “Sing Sing,” Ralph Fiennes in “Conclave,” and Sebastian Stan for the Donald Trump biopic “The Apprentice.”
Backstage after his win, Brody talked about receiving the night’s honor 23 years after winning an Oscar for “The Pianist,” which is about a Polish Jewish radio station pianist who survived the Holocaust.
“It’s been many years, it’s been decades, and I’ve had a long life and career and a lot of peeks and a lot of valleys, and it’s given me perspective,” he said in part. “That you can have a triumph in your life again is incredibly healing and rewarding, and also for what it speaks to of my family’s struggles and the hardships that they’ve faced that have given me the good fortune of having front footing as an American actor and the ability to hope and dream and pursue something like this.”
Brody further discussed his mother and her family fleeing oppression in Hungary and coming to America, and how their journey “mirrors” the one depicted in “The Brutalist.” He said about his mother’s family: “Their resilience and their sacrifice is something that was very important for me to honor as well as this universal theme of wanting to find a home; to find acceptance. To not be ‘other’-ed because of how you look, how you sound, or what your religion might be.”
For best drama film, “The Brutalist” beat “A Complete Unknown,” “Conclave,” the sci-fi film “Dune: Part Two,” “Nickel Boys,” and “September 5,” which spotlights the murder of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
The post Adrien Brody Wins Golden Globe for Lead Role as Hungarian Jewish Architect, Holocaust Survivor in ‘The Brutalist’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Three Israelis Killed in Northern West Bank Terror Shooting
Israeli security and rescue personnel at the scene of a shooting attack on a car and bus where at least three Israelis were killed near Kedumim in the West Bank, Israel’s national ambulance service Magen David Adom (MDA) said, Jan. 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Rami Amichay
Three Israelis were killed and several injured on Monday in a shooting attack on a car and bus near the settlement of Kedumim in the West Bank, Israel‘s national ambulance service Magen David Adom (MDA) said.
The attack, on a major road used by both Israelis and Palestinians, comes amid a diplomatic push for a deal to end the 15-month-old war in Gaza and return Israeli hostages home and may pose another obstacle to sealing such a deal before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20.
Footage posted on Israeli news sites showed at least two men emerge from a car and apparently open fire on nearby vehicles near the Palestinian village of al-Funduq, just down the road from Kedumim.
Israel‘s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in the settlement where the attack took place, called for an urgent cabinet meeting “to discuss a shift in strategy and to genuinely eradicate terrorism.”
“Anyone who relies on the Palestinian Authority [which exercises limited self-governance in the West Bank] to secure the safety of Israeli citizens is waking up to a morning where terrorists are again slaughtering Jewish residents. Funduk, Nablus, and Jenin must look like Jabalia, so that Kfar Saba does not, God forbid, become Gaza,” he wrote. Jabalia is a town in the north of the Gaza Strip that has come under Israeli bombardment due to the presence of Hamas there.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met senior military and security officials to discuss the situation and approved measures to capture Monday’s attackers as well as “a series of additional offensive and defensive actions” in the West Bank.
“No one will be spared,” he posted on X.
There was no immediate comment from the Palestinian authorities in the West Bank.
Hamas, the terrorist group which has run the Gaza Strip and has a presence in the West Bank, praised the attack as a “heroic response against the occupation’s continued crimes [including] the war of genocide in Gaza.” But it did not claim responsibility.
Since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas terrorists on southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, the violence in the West Bank has spiraled, with hundreds of Palestinians and dozens of Israelis killed.
‘ACT FORCEFULLY’
Israel‘s Defense Minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the military to “act forcefully” in response to Monday’s attack.
Israeli Army Radio said the military had imposed a cordon around all villages in the area to search for the suspects, who it believes fled to a nearby Palestinian village.
MDA said two women in their 60s and a man around 40 years old were pronounced dead at the scene, while eight passengers were wounded including a 63-year-old male bus driver who is in serious condition.
Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida said in a post on Telegram that “Israel will never enjoy security” unless the Palestinian people also have security.
Palestinian security forces moved into Jenin, in the northern West Bank, last month in a move they say is aimed at suppressing armed groups of “outlaws” who have built up a power base in the city and its adjacent refugee camp.
The post Three Israelis Killed in Northern West Bank Terror Shooting first appeared on Algemeiner.com.