As we forecast last month, Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence of the Great Synagogue, Sydney, is set to come home to take the pulpit at Finchley United vacated in spring by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis.

Rabbi Lawrence’s likely return had been on the cards for some name - his name had previously been linked to another United Synagogue congregation.

His prospective appointment to one of the US’s biggest congregations will lead to speculation that he might even follow Rabbi Mirvis and become chief rabbi himself.

If Rabbi Mirvis were to retire in a decade, Rabbi Lawrence, now 47, be no older than him when he took office as chief rabbi.