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Obituary: Muki Baum was a joyful fundraiser for the treatment centre that carried his name
Muki Baum was the inspiration for the MukiBaum Treatment Centre, a centre for children with complex disabilities. He was a highly visible member of Toronto’s Jewish community, raising more than $750,000 for the centre, soliciting donations outside United Bakers Dairy Restaurant, Holt Renfrew in the downtown shopping corridor and other busy locations around the city.
He was also the 2009 recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship, which recognizes people who, through exceptional long-term efforts, have made outstanding contributions to the well-being of their communities.
“Of course he did all the wonderful work to fundraise,” said Cheryl Perera, president and CEO of Aptus Treatment Centre (which is what the MukiBaum Treatment Centre is now called). “You can contribute to the world. You can enjoy your life. I think that’s the legacy he leaves behind. And I think that’s the same vision that his mom had: for people to live a good life.”
The funeral home’s website is filled with messages from people who encountered Muki in his wheelchair and recalled his warmth and joyful approach to fundraising.
He died in Toronto after a short illness on Dec. 6, 2024.
Baum was born in Israel in 1959 with a severe hearing impairment and cerebral palsy. His mother, Nehama, had a degree in social work, and specialized in working with families whose children had cerebral palsy.
At that time the medical diagnosis was blunt, recommending he be institutionalized. But Nehama persevered with the belief that all children deserve to live as independent a life as possible.
“Some people think that I am different because I have cerebral palsy, and I am deaf. But I want you to know that I am a person, not a disability,” Baum said in the 2013 film, A Day in the Life of Muki. “When I was born, the doctors in Israel told my parents that I was a ‘piece of meat’ that they would carry the rest of their lives.”
By the time Muki was 15, Nehama faced a challenge. In Israel, Muki was either the only deaf child among children who had cerebral palsy or the only child with cerebral palsy among children who were hearing-impaired. She sought a solution that would allow him to thrive.
She had contacts in four North American cities: Toronto, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York.
“I came to Toronto and I found everything I needed right here. I saw a city that was safe. As an Israeli, I saw a city where people came to the road and pointed their finger, and traffic would stop to allow people to cross the street. I said, ‘That is where I want to live, because that is where Muki can live safely,’” Nehama said in a documentary entitled The Muki Baum Project, about her life’s work. She never went to the three other cities.
She admitted that adapting to Muki’s newfound independence was an adjustment.
“Muki wanted to go out. He wanted to walk. There were buses that he wanted to take. He wanted to take the subway. He wanted to be independent.”
In 1979, Nehama Baum founded the MukiBaum Treatment Centre with a vision of enabling adults, youth and children living with multiple disabilities to thrive in their communities.
Nehama worked with specialists in different fields to ensure that the centre offered innovative approaches to helping their clients. “Nehama Baum saw a Snoezelen Room and was determined to create one,” said Rose Schonblum, producer of The Muki Baum Project. Soon the MukiBaum Treatment Centre offered this multisensory therapy with lights and water that provides a relaxing experience to help reduce agitation and anxiety.
Brenda Lass attended an open studio clay class with Muki at the Jewish Community Centre’s Koffler Centre in Toronto, where participants were free to create whatever they wanted.
“It was so much fun. He had such a personality. I went into studio, and it was really me and Muki. And I got to know him there. He was making an Israeli flag on a board. The flag was probably 15 inches by 18 inches, and I used to ask him how it was going to fly!
“Then one week he decided he wanted to go on the potters’ wheel. You have to be a contortionist to fit on it—I could hardly do it. You get into the thing, and you lean over and you have to balance the clay. And to see the two of us trying to get him onto it…. We just laughed and laughed!
“And then I would see him at Lawrence Plaza some years later. Right away, he recognized me. He was creative. He would sell cards that he’d made. There’s no question that he loved doing it.”
“When you have a kid like Muki, there are a lot of things you can complain about,” his father, Moshe, said in The Muki Baum Project. “But when you look at the whole picture, if Muki wasn’t sent to us as he is, the MukiBaum Treatment Centre wouldn’t exist, and hundreds of thousands of people are being helped because of him.”
Nehama said, “There is a very beautiful story called, ‘I Wanted to Get to Rome, but I Went to Amsterdam.’ Someone went on the plane and they thought they were going to Rome, but they found themselves in Amsterdam. Now, Amsterdam is not as beautiful as Rome, but it has its own beauty. And this is the metaphor for having a child. You’re pregnant, you think and dream about how the child will be and what at life will be like with your baby and then your child. And then you have Amsterdam and not Rome.”
Muki Baum is survived by his father, Moshe. He is predeceased by his mother, Nehama, who died in 2022.
The post Obituary: Muki Baum was a joyful fundraiser for the treatment centre that carried his name appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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US Immigration Judge Rules Palestinian Columbia Student Khalil Can Be Deported
Mahmoud Khalil speaks to members of media about the Revolt for Rafah encampment at Columbia University during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza, in New York City, US, June 1, 2024. Photo: Jeenah Moon via Reuters Connect
A US immigration judge ruled on Friday that Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil can be deported, allowing President Donald Trump’s administration to proceed with its effort to remove the Columbia University student from the United States a month after his arrest in New York City.
The ruling by Judge Jamee Comans of the LaSalle Immigration Court in Louisiana was not a final determination of Khalil’s fate. But it represented a significant victory for the Republican president in his efforts to deport foreign pro-Palestinian students who are in the United States legally and, like Khalil, have not been charged with any crime.
Citing the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, Trump-appointed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined last month that Khalil could harm American foreign policy interests and should be deported for his “otherwise lawful” speech and activism.
Comans said that she did not have the authority to overrule a secretary of state. The judge denied a motion by Khalil’s lawyers to subpoena Rubio and question him about the “reasonable grounds” he had for his determination under the 1952 law.
The judge’s decision came after a combative 90-minute hearing held in a court located inside a jail complex for immigrants surrounded by double-fenced razor wire run by private government contractors in rural Louisiana.
Khalil, a prominent figure in the anti-Israel student protest movement that has roiled Columbia’s New York City campus, was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, holds Algerian citizenship and became a US lawful permanent resident last year. Khalil’s wife is a US citizen.
For now, Khalil remains in the Louisiana jail where federal authorities transferred him after his March 8 arrest at his Columbia University apartment building some 1,200 miles (1,930 km) away. Comans gave Khalil’s lawyers until April 23 to apply for relief before she considers whether to issue a deportation order. An immigration judge can rule that a migrant cannot be deported because of possible persecution in a home country, among other limited grounds.
In a separate case in New Jersey, US District Judge Michael Farbiarz has blocked deportation while he considers Khalil’s claim that his arrest was made in violation of the US Constitution’s First Amendment protections for freedom of speech.
KHALIL ADDRESSES THE JUDGE
As Comans adjourned, Khalil leaned forward, asking to address the court. Comans hesitated, then agreed.
Khalil quoted her remarks at his hearing on Tuesday that nothing was more important to the court than “due process rights and fundamental fairness.”
“Clearly what we witnessed today, neither of these principles were present today or in this whole process,” Khalil said. “This is exactly why the Trump administration has sent me to this court, a thousand miles away from my family.”
The judge said her ruling turned on an undated, two-page letter signed by Rubio and submitted to the court and to Khalil’s counsel.
Khalil’s lawyers, appearing via a video link, complained they were given less than 48 hours to review Rubio’s letter and evidence submitted by the Trump administration to Comans this week. Marc Van Der Hout, Khalil’s lead immigration attorney, repeatedly asked for the hearing to be delayed. Comans reprimanded him for what the judge said was straying from the hearing’s purpose, twice saying he had “an agenda.”
Comans said that the 1952 immigration law gave the secretary of state “unilateral judgment” to make his determination about Khalil.
Khalil should be removed, Rubio wrote, for his role in “antisemitic protests and disruptive activities, which fosters a hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States.”
Rubio’s letter did not accuse Khalil of breaking any laws, but said the State Department can revoke the legal status of immigrants who could harm US foreign policy interests even when their beliefs, associations or statements are “otherwise lawful.”
After Comans ended the hearing, several of Khalil’s supporters wept as they left the courtroom. Khalil stood and smiled at them, making a heart shape with his hands.
Khalil has said criticism of the US government’s support of Israel is being wrongly conflated with antisemitism. His lawyers told the court they were submitting into evidence Khalil’s interviews last year with CNN and other news outlets in which he denounces antisemitism and other prejudice.
His lawyers have said the Trump administration was targeting him for protected speech including the right to criticize American foreign policy.
“Mahmoud was subject to a charade of due process, a flagrant violation of his right to a fair hearing and a weaponization of immigration law to suppress dissent,” Van Der Hout said in a statement after the hearing.
The American immigration court system is run and its judges are appointed by the US Justice Department, separate from the government’s judicial branch.
The post US Immigration Judge Rules Palestinian Columbia Student Khalil Can Be Deported first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Releases Video of Israeli-American Hostage Held in Gaza
FILE PHOTO: Yael, Adi and Mika Alexander, the family of Edan Alexander, the American-Israeli and Israel Defense Forces soldier taken hostage during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, pose for a photograph during an interview with Reuters at the Alexander’s home in Tenafly, New Jersey, U.S., December 14, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Stephani Spindel/File Photo
Hamas on Saturday released a video purportedly of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, who has been held in Gaza since he was captured by Palestinian terrorists on October 7, 2023.
In the undated video, the man who introduces himself as Edan Alexander states he has been held in Gaza for 551 days. The man questions why he is still being held and pleads for his release.
Alexander is a soldier serving in the Israeli military.
The edited video was released as Jews began to mark Passover, a weeklong holiday that celebrates freedom. Alexander’s family released a statement acknowledging the video that said the holiday would not be one of freedom as long as Edan and the 58 other hostages in Gaza remained in captivity.
Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda that is designed to put pressure on the government. The war is in its eighteenth month.
Hamas released 38 hostages under a ceasefire that began on January 19. In March, Israel’s military resumed its ground and aerial campaign on Gaza, abandoning the ceasefire after Hamas rejected proposals to extend the truce without ending the war.
Israeli officials say that campaign will continue until the remaining 59 hostages are freed and Gaza is demilitarized. Hamas insists it will free hostages only as part of a deal to end the war and has rejected demands to lay down its arms.
The US, Qatar and Egypt are mediating between Hamas and Israel.
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Some Progress in Hostage Talks But Major Issues Remain, Source tells i24NEWS
Demonstrators hold signs and pictures of hostages, as relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itai Ron
i24 News – A source familiar with the ongoing negotiations for a hostage deal confirmed to i24NEWS on Friday that some progress has been made in talks, currently taking place with Egypt, including the exchange of draft proposals. However, it remains unclear whether Hamas will ultimately accept the emerging framework. According to the source, discussions are presently focused on reaching a cohesive outline with Cairo.
A delegation of senior Hamas officials is expected to arrive in Cairo tomorrow. While there is still no finalized draft, even Arab sources acknowledge revisions to Egypt’s original proposal, reportedly including a degree of flexibility in the number of hostages Hamas is willing to release.
The source noted that Hamas’ latest proposal to release five living hostages is unacceptable to Israel, which continues to adhere to the “Witkoff framework.” At the core of this framework is the release of a significant number of hostages, alongside a prolonged ceasefire period—Israel insists on 40 days, while Hamas is demanding more. The plan avoids intermittent pauses or distractions, aiming instead for uninterrupted discussions on post-war arrangements.
As previously reported, Israel is also demanding comprehensive medical and nutritional reports on all living hostages as an early condition of the deal.
“For now,” the source told i24NEWS, “Hamas is still putting up obstacles. We are not at the point of a done deal.” Israeli officials emphasize that sustained military and logistical pressure on Hamas is yielding results, pointing to Hamas’ shift from offering one hostage to five in its most recent agreement.
Negotiators also assert that Israel’s demands are fully backed by the United States. Ultimately, Israeli officials are adamant: no negotiations on the “day after” will take place until the hostage issue is resolved—a message directed not only at Hamas, but also at mediators.
The post Some Progress in Hostage Talks But Major Issues Remain, Source tells i24NEWS first appeared on Algemeiner.com.