David “Dush” Barashi, who manages a team of medical clowns at Hadassah’s hospitals, has reported for duty. After enlisting in the reserves, Barashi is now creating connections through humor at an Israel Defense Forces rehabilitation center.
"Humor is not just laughter; it's a vital resource that people use to lift their heads off the floor," said Barashi, who has served as a medical clown at Hadassah for more than 20 years.
At Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem and Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus, Barashi and his team regularly work alongside hospitalized children and support family members to bring comfort and lightheartedness to a difficult time. In the early days of the war, the clowns worked with social workers and nurses to visit all of the war wounded at the hospitals. They were also responsible for assisting and organizing the many volunteers who arrived to help.
"In places where there is order, the clown comes to make a colorful mess, but when necessary, the clown makes order," Barashi said. "We brought calm, familyhood and empathy into the departments.”
Soon an old contact, who lost his son on October 7, recruited Barashi to serve at the IDF rehabilitation center. Barashi now spends most of his days at the center, a place where mental health professionals treat soldiers injured in combat who cannot return to their unit following hospitalization. His experience is chronicled in a full-page story in the Israel Hayom newspaper.
“I accompany the soldiers in their treatments, explain the place in a clownish and pleasant way and build treatment plans with them," Barashi said.
On his days off, Barashi stops by Hadassah to visit his friends and young patients in the pediatric wards.
"This situation raises many questions about the future. What do I do next? And how do I process all these experiences?” Barashi said. “It won't be easy to get back to normal, and it's not clear what kind of routine it will be. But my home is Hadassah, and I know that my heart is here no matter what.”