The senior rabbi of the United Synagogue’s largest congregation has gone on unexplained leave.

Rabbi Chaim Kanterovitz, head of a community of 4,000 adults and children at Borehamwood and Elstree Synagogue, will be absent for an unspecified period.

In a short letter to congregants, Simon Mitchell, chairman of BES, announced that Rabbi Kanterovitz would be taking “a period of leave” and requested them “for the duration of this leave… to please respect the rabbi’s privacy”.

He added: “Rest assured, we are working closely in consultation with United Synagogue directors and trustees to ensure a full rabbinic provision in his absence.”

Rabbi Kanterovitz came to the congregation five years ago from the Yeshurun Synagogue in Manchester. Until then, the community had been without permanent rabbinic leadership for two years and efforts to find a successor to Rabbi Naftali Brawer, who left in 2011, had at times proved divisive.

A year and a half ago, it recruited Rabbi Alex Chapper from Ilford Federation Synagogue to be community rabbi and lead its growing satellite minyan at Yavneh College.