News and Events

Rappelling Soldiers with Sweets, Medical Minions, Clever Clowns and More: Rambam Celebrates Purim

Publication Date: 2/25/2021 10:30 AM

Elite soldiers in costume rappelling down the exterior walls of Ruth Rappaport Children’s Hospital to hand out sweets... Medical clowns… Departments competing in a costume contest for prizes…

Purim festivities at Rambam. Photography: Rambam HCCPurim festivities at Rambam. Photography: Rambam HCC

Purim begins today at sundown, and Rambam Health Care Campus has decided it’s not going let COVID-19 ruin the fun! This year, the holiday falls exactly one year after the pandemic struck the entire State of Israel and Rambam in particular. The hospital will soon be admitting its 2,000th COVID-19 patient since the first patient was hospitalized in February 2020.

As Rambam approaches this depressing milestone, the staff decided to set the agenda in the spirit of the holiday – to be happy and spread joy, while continuing to educate about the importance of getting vaccinated. Festivities began with medical clowns, who wandered around the campus with large trays laden with Hamentaschen. Every employee who presented a vaccination certificate received the yummy treats and were serenaded by the clowns playing songs on little guitars.

As one of the day’s highlights, IDF soldiers from elite border patrol units dressed up as superheroes to rappell down the exterior walls of Ruth Rappaport Children’s Hospital and Sammy Ofer Tower to hand out sweets, bringing smiles to the faces of children and adults alike.

Then the real party began with a team of judges led by Rambam General Director Dr. Michael Halberthal, who toured the hospital’s departments to see the costumes worn by the doctors, nurses, and other staff members. From there, the judges moved to the Cheryl Spencer Auditorium—which has stood empty for almost a year due to the COVID-19 limitations—where teams from different hospital sectors competed to find out which group had come up with the best costumes – many of which, were COVID-19-themed. In one group, team members dressed up as various coronavirus mutations; another team pretended to be Pfizer vaccines. There was a department whose costume was an obstetric ultrasound device, and another dressed up as Minions performing CPR on a little Minion.

The variety and creativity were outstanding, but a contest is a contest, and the judging panel ultimately decided that the first prize should be shared between the team from the Cheryl Spencer Pediatric Emergency Department (the "Minions") and the Department of Clinical Nutrition. Second prize was awarded to the Medical Engineering Unit (disguised as Domino’s Pizza), and third prize went to the Department of Pediatrics B (disguised as a somewhat unconventional Zoom session). Prizes were arranged by Rambam's Department of Human Resources, and were donated by Keshet Ta'amim, Shani Confectionery, and Blueberry.

Click below to watch the Purim festivities at Rambam.