Amnon Raviv, PhD

Medical clown Dr. Amnon Raviv is a pioneer in the field ‒ the first practitioner to earn a PhD in Medical Clowning with a dissertation titled “Medical clowning with patients with life-threatening and incurable diseases.” Amnon began to work as a hospital medical clown in 1995, and in 2004 joined the Dream Doctors Project as a medical clown working in the Barzilai Medical Center, Ashkelon. Located near the border with the Gaza Strip, it has been subject to rocket fire over recent years by rockets launched from Gaza towards Israel. Amnon, together with Medical Clown Hagar Hofesh, were the first to work in a medical center under rocket fire, treating shock victims ‒ both Israelis and Palestinians ‒ and working to prevent PTSD symptoms. At the same time, Amnon was working with dialysis and geriatric patients in the Hartzfeld Hospital rehabilitation center, and in the internal medicine and the pediatric oncology departments at the Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer.

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Since 2000, Raviv has been an instructor in theatre arts at the Department of Theatre of the University of Haifa. In 2006, he began to teach medical clowning in the pioneering program for an academic undergraduate degree in medical clowning at the same University. The special track was launched thanks to the initiative of the Dream Doctors Project working in collaboration with the University of Haifa, led by Prof. Atay Citron. During those years, Amnon taught theatre courses and medical clowning at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as well.

In 2012, Amnon Raviv was invited by the Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, and the Dream Doctors Project, to work in the adult oncology units. Two years later, the budget ran out ‒ but the patients and their families grouped together in a struggle to obtain a new budget and prevent the termination of Amnon’s work. The very emotional public struggle (with broad national media coverage in Israel), waged by patients, many of whom were terminally ill, was successful, and Amnon was able to remain in the department. This unique case of an uncompromising battle by incurably ill patients is perhaps the most concrete illustration of the importance of having a medical clown in wards treating those with life-threatening and incurable illnesses, as proof even beyond medical articles.

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As an instructor of medical clowning, Amnon is currently teaching at the Ben-Gurion University Medical School and at the Tel Hai Academic College, where he will be leading a new study track opening in the fall of 2017. The new program is the first academic Master’s Degree Program in Drama therapy and Medical Clowning, under the aegis of the Drama Therapy Department. In addition to his teaching in academic institutions, Amnon lectures and facilitates workshops in medical clowning throughout the world.

Raviv has written the first book that is a comprehensive analysis of medical clowning from various aspects (practice and theory). Medical clowning: The healing performance, part of the Enactment Series edited by Prof. Richard Schechner, published by Seagull Books (2017) and distributed by the University of Chicago, simultaneously issued in the USA, UK, and India.

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Amnon Raviv is a member of the scientific council of Healthcare-Clowning-Research-International Network (HCRIN+).