Those we have lost

Yuval Buyum, 21: Talented pianist whose ‘soul was wrapped up in music’

Murdered by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7

Yuval Buyum (Courtesy)
Yuval Buyum (Courtesy)

Yuval Buyum, 21, from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, was murdered by Hamas terrorists in his home in the kibbutz on October 7.

Yuval was living in the youth wing of the kibbutz and told his father the morning of the attack that he could hear terrorists walking around outside trying to enter. He was holding on to the handle of his reinforced room, he told his dad, to try to prevent them from entering.

Not long after 12 p.m., Yuval stopped answering his father’s texts. Early the next morning, Yuval’s parents and siblings were rescued from their reinforced room in the kibbutz, but nobody had any word of Yuval. Only five days later were they informed that he had been murdered and his body was identified.

Yuval was buried in Kibbutz Shefayim on October 15. He is survived by his parents, Tamar and Ilan, and his siblings Guy, 24, and Elad, 15.

A talented musician and piano player, he devoted most of his waking hours to music, said his loved ones, exploring classical songs as well as modern ones and composing his own tunes. He was sensitive and gentle, they said, and always willing to lend a hand to others.

His cousin, Noa Fink, wrote on Facebook to “Yuvali, my beloved cousin.”

“How much light and creativity you brought to the family,” she added. “A man who was all peace and love, killed in war. It’s impossible to comprehend, a nightmare come true, just painful and awful.”

His close friend and musical partner, Eran Keren, wrote on Facebook that they spent a great deal of time together in the studio, where they would always be referred to as “Buyum and Eran.”

“You were my musical partner for the past decade, we exchanged notes, we exchanged albums, and I built a deep friendship with you that was just… You were a little different from all the others. We both knew how to talk about everything, the fears, the aspirations, the deeper things. A pair of slightly artistic kids who were music fanatics in a way that most people can’t really understand.”

Yuval, he wrote, “was a great musician in every respect, modest in a way you wouldn’t believe, with a great deal of desire and aspiration for perfection, even amid crises, an incredible and dedicated teacher to all your students and a true friend.” He recalled “the all-nighters in the Sha’ar Hanegev studio, the performances, the laughter, the times we sat at your place in the youth wing, sharing thoughts on life, stupid humor, and of course music, the basis of everything. I know that anytime I approach any instrument, you will be in my thoughts.”

His father, Ilan, said Yuval was in such a positive place musically and personally before he was killed.

“Yuval’s soul was always wrapped up in music, when he was in school he spent hours on the piano,” Ilan, told the Walla news outlet. “Everyone in the music studio in Sha’ar Hanegev knew him. He headed a project of singing Matti Caspi songs in nursery schools.”

After Yuval completed his mandatory army service, Ilan said, “he returned to the studio as a piano teacher. In recent months Yuval was blossoming in music and in general. He had a new love in his life. He was glowing with happiness which affected all those around him and infected us all with joy. There was light simply flowing from him.”

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