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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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Keith Siegel, Yarden Bibas, Ofer Kalderon set to be released Saturday from Gaza
Philissa Cramer reports for JTA. Look for more updates from The CJN after Shabbat.
An American Israeli and a high-profile young father are among the latest hostages set to be freed from Gaza, in what will be the fourth release during the current Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
Keith Siegel, Yarden Bibas and Ofer Kalderon will be released on Saturday, Hamas told Israel on Friday. The three men are among 33 hostages whose release was required under the current deal, out of 98 held before the deal’s start earlier this month.
Siegel, 65, is the oldest American-Israeli hostage. A North Carolina native who moved to Israel as a young adult, he was abducted in his own car from Kibbutz Kfar Aza with his wife Aviva during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Aviva was released after 51 days in a temporary ceasefire in November 2023 and has advocated for him since, wearing a T-shirt daily with a photo of him on it.
“Dad is coming!” Aviva Siegel shouts in a video the family posted on Friday after hearing the news that her husband was on the list for release. Siegel’s mother died during his captivity.
Bibas, 38, is the father of the only children who remain in Gaza and appeared in a hostage video in November 2023 that showed him responding to being told that his wife, Shiri, and sons Ariel and Kfir had been killed. Israel has never confirmed Hamas’ allegation that the mother and young children were dead, but has said there are “grave concerns” about them and did not insist on their release prior to that of living men.
This week, Israel demanded that Hamas “clarify” the status of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir, who were abducted separately from Yarden and have become global symbols of the crisis; it is not clear whether that has happened or will before his release.
Kalderon, 51, was abducted with his two children from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Sahar, 17, and Erez, 12, were released during the November 2023 ceasefire after 52 days in captivity. Their mother, Hadas, was a prominent voice for mothers of the children abducted on Oct. 7 and has continued to advocate for her ex-husband, a dual French-Israeli citizen.
After the three men are released, there will be 79 hostages remaining in Gaza, of whom at least 44 are confirmed to be dead—36 whose deaths were announced before the current ceasefire, and eight who are among the 33 whose release was negotiated as part of the current deal.
The post Keith Siegel, Yarden Bibas, Ofer Kalderon set to be released Saturday from Gaza appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Hamas Confirms Death of Terror Chief Mohammed Deif Months After Israeli Strike
Picture said to show leader of Hamas’s military wing, known as Al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif in a location given as Gaza Strip in this handout picture released on Jan. 7, 2024. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas officially confirmed on Thursday that its military chief, Mohammed Deif, was killed during the Gaza war, almost six months after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported his death.
Deif, the architect of Hamas’s military capabilities, is believed to have been one of the masterminds behind the terrorist group’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 — which sparked the Gaza war.
Abu Ubaida, a Hamas spokesperson, also reported the deaths of Deif’s deputy, Khan Younis Brigade commander Rafa Salama, as well as senior operatives Marwan Issa, Ghazi Abu Tama’a, Raad Thabet, Ahmed Ghandour, and Ayman Nofal.
According to the IDF, Deif was killed in an airstrike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza on July 13 of last year.
Following weeks of intelligence assessments, Israeli authorities gathered evidence to confirm Deif’s death before publicly announcing it in early August.
“IDF fighter jets struck in the area of Khan Yunis, and … it can be confirmed that Mohammed Deif was eliminated in the strike,” the military said. “His elimination serves the objectives of the war and demonstrates Israel’s ability to carry out targeted strikes with precision.”
At the time, Hamas neither confirmed nor denied Deif’s death, but one official, Ezzat Rashaq, stated that any announcements regarding the deaths of its leaders would be made solely by the organization.
“Unless either of them [the Hamas political and military leadership] announces it, no news published in the media or by any other parties can be confirmed,” Rashaq said.
In November, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Deif, as well as for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.
Deif is believed to have collaborated closely with the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, managing military operations and coordinating with the group’s top commanders throughout the conflict.
After Deif’s assassination, then-defense minister Gallant posted an image on social media praising the Israeli military’s accomplishment.
“The assassination of mass murderer Mohammed Deif — ‘Gaza’s Bin Laden’ — is a major step toward dismantling Hamas as a military and governing entity, and achieving the war’s objectives,” he said.
The post Hamas Confirms Death of Terror Chief Mohammed Deif Months After Israeli Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘A Bad but Necessary Deal’: Five Members of His Family Were Murdered — Today, Their Killer Walks Free
Oran Almog, right, addressing the UN Security Council next to Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon on July 25, 2017. Photo: Screenshot
While the release of three Israeli hostages on Thursday brought relief and elation across Israel, it also triggered a wave of mixed emotions, especially among victims who saw the terrorists responsible for their suffering set free. One of them is Oran Almog, who was just ten years old when a Palestinian terrorist disguised as a pregnant woman blew up the restaurant he was in, killing five members of his family and leaving him blind.
Yet, while Thursday’s release of Sami Jaradat — the mastermind behind the October 2003 massacre of Almog’s family — was a deeply personal blow, the return of hostages remained a necessary step, he said.
“That the terrorist who killed my family will find himself free is deeply painful, heartbreaking even,” he told The Algemeiner. “But at the same time, I know that even today — especially today — I must set aside my personal pain and focus on the significance of this deal. And the significance is clear. We are getting our hostages home, and that is the only thing that matters.”
Almog’s father, Moshe Almog, his younger brother, Tomer, his grandparents Admiral (res.) Ze’ev and Ruth Almog, and his cousin, Asaf, were murdered when the suicide bomber, Hanadi Jaradat, a 29-year-old lawyer from Jenin, managed to get past the security guard of the Maxim restaurant — jointly owned by a Jewish Israeli and an Arab Israeli — and blow herself up. Sixteen other people were also murdered in the attack, among them four children. Almog lost his eyesight, and his mother, sister, and aunt were among the 60 injured Israelis.
“Sami Jaradat’s continued imprisonment will never bring my family back, but his release can bring the hostages back home alive,” Almog explained.
Emotional meeting between Agam Berger and her family at Beilinson Hospital in Israel. Photo: Haim Zach (GPO)
Almog knows firsthand what it means to be on the receiving end of a hostage-prisoner exchange.
Just two weeks after marking the 20th anniversary of the Maxim restaurant attack, another tragedy struck his family. On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists brutally murdered Nadav and Yam and abducted Chen, Agam, Gal, and Tal from the Almog-Goldstein family in Kfar Azza.
Fifty-one days later, in November 2023, they were released from Hamas captivity in a temporary ceasefire deal.
Under the current ceasefire agreement reached earlier this month, Hamas will release a total 33 Israeli hostages, eight of whom are deceased, according to the terrorist group. In exchange, Israel will free over 1,900 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom were serving multiple life sentences on terrorism offenses. Thursday saw the release of three Israelis — including IDF surveillance soldier Agam Berger, 20, and civilians Arbel Yehoud, 29, and Gadi Mozes, 80 — and five Thai nationals, who were working in Israeli kibbutzim when they were abducted.
“This is a bad deal, very bad, but the alternative is that much worse,” Almog said. “We must look ahead, put today aside, and recognize that releasing prisoners serves a greater purpose.”
However, Almog expressed hope that Israel would move toward a more decisive and uncompromising approach in its fight against terrorism.
“I sincerely hope that as a country, we will have the wisdom to decisively thwart terrorism,” he said, emphasizing the need to break free from the ongoing cycle of prisoner exchanges.
“I don’t want us to find ourselves trapped in a cycle of releasing terrorists, only for them to return to terror, and then repeat the process again and again,” he added.
Almog has previously addressed the UN Security Council, urging action against the so-called “pay-for-slay” scheme, in which terrorists and their families receive monthly stipends from the Palestinian Authority. The terrorist behind the murder of Almog’s family received $3,000 a month while behind bars, making him almost a millionaire by the time of his release.
Still, Almog concluded with a deeply uplifting message for the returning hostages, confident that they would have a chance at a good life, drawing from his own experiences since the terror attack.
Oran Almog. Photo: Facebook
After his release from the hospital, he began a long rehabilitation process, culminating in third place at the World Blind Sailing Championship with Etgarim, a nonprofit founded by disabled veterans and rehabilitation experts, and supported by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ). He was chosen to light a torch at Israel’s Independence Day ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the state and, despite his disability, insisted on enlisting in the IDF, serving in an elite unit. Today, he is a managing partner at a financial technology fund, works with Etgarim, and shares his story globally through lectures.
“I know the hostages will be able to return, to live, and to live well. With enough support — and a great deal of willpower — it is truly possible to rebuild life, even after the deepest catastrophes,” he said.
The post ‘A Bad but Necessary Deal’: Five Members of His Family Were Murdered — Today, Their Killer Walks Free first appeared on Algemeiner.com.