#dream doctors

The Israel-based I Clown You Project brought two Dream Doctor medical clowns, David Barashi and Rotem Goldenberg, from Israel to Los Angeles earlier this month for a weeklong series of events, lectures, hospital visits, workshops and seminars.

The project aims to grow awareness in the United States around the profession of professional medical clowning and its value both in the hospital and in daily life.

In Israel, medical clowning is a recognized healthcare profession. Barashi and Goldenberg are among the 100 members of the Dream Doctors Project.

sraeli humanitarian-aid groups are already on their way to Florida as the worst hurricane on record barrels into the state today, threatening tornados, catastrophic storm surges, strong winds and flooding, and sending over 7 million people fleeing from their homes.

Other Israeli aid teams are making their way to Mexico, which was hit by a deadly earthquake on Thursday night, and are offering aid to communities in Haiti and the Caribbean, also devastated by the powerful Hurricane Irma.

Arizona resident Carrie Mork contracted Covid-19 while touring Egypt in March. Her symptoms began shortly after her group got to Israel. For the next month she was in a hospital near Tiberias, far from everything familiar.

The doctors and nurses at Poriya Medical Center saved Mork’s life. What saved her sanity were the Dream Doctors therapeutic clowns on Poriya’s staff.

A breakthrough Israeli study published in the European Journal of Pediatrics shows that group therapy delivered by a medical clown to young children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) led to significant improvement over time in word production, play reciprocity and amount of social smiles as compared with other interventions.

In addition, the frequency of stereotypical ASD behaviors during and following the clown intervention was lessened in comparison to behaviors before the intervention.