The former Aussie known in Israel as the ‘Green Rabbi’

Climate activism is the key motivation for DAVID PEARLMAN PARAN, who will be ordained next week. He talks to ITTAY FLESCHER.

“What can I do to propel Israeli society towards a sustainable future?” This is the question that will animate the leadership of Australian-born Rabbi David Pearlman Paran.

Next week, Paran will become the first graduate of Sydney’s Moriah College to be ordained at the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary in Jerusalem.

A former federal Rosh Chinuch of Habonim Dror Australia, Paran made Aliyah in 1994. He felt that the best way to realise himself as a performer and educator, and to make changes in Jewish society, would be to live in a rich and complex Jewish society in Israel rather than a place where Jewish and secular life are separated from one another.

After volunteering for many years as a climate activist and working as a Theatre Studies teacher, Paran began his studies for the rabbinate five years ago.

He has been surrounded by climate activists his whole life. He is married to Yael Cohen Paran, who served in the Knesset from 2015-2019 with the Zionist Union and later the Green Movement.

Paran lives in Pardes Chana, where he has already been fulfilling rabbinic duties for the Masorti congregation Darkei Noam. He hopes to take on the senior position there after his ordination and continue conducting life-cycle events from bar and bat mitzvahs to funerals.

But the weddings he will conduct will not be recognised by the Israeli Rabbinate as his smicha (rabbinic ordination) is not Orthodox. The workaround for many Israeli couples is to add in an online wedding, conducted in the US State of Utah and recently recognised by Israel’s Supreme Court. In the past, Israeli couples who wanted non-Orthodox marriages recognised by the State had to travel overseas, which created a booming wedding business for nearby Cyprus.