The Federation has appointed Dayan Yehonoson Hool as the third dayan on its beth din.

The former Hasmonean High School pupil studied at yeshivas both in Gateshead and Jerusalem, gaining his semichah in 2002. He went on to take examinations for the Israeli Chief Rabbinate dayonus programme. This semichah qualification was accepted as an MA equivalent by Queen Mary's University, London, under whose auspices he subsequently gained a postgraduate diploma in international commercial arbitration, graduating in 2014.

Dayan Hool, 47, has lived in Israel since the mid-1990s and he and his London-born wife Dina have eight children aged from four to 20 years old.

Dayan Hool brings to the beth din experience in the areas of commercial and financial arbitration and has sat on hundreds of cases in the past decade.

He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in London and is due to see his first book, Beth Din Commercial Arbitration, published by Mosaica Press in the coming weeks.

As a lecturer he has delivered sessions on Jewish law and commercial arbitration to the United Synagogue's Rabbinical Council.

In London to meet members of the Federation's council, Dayan Hool said: "The Federation Beth Din is renowned for the halachic authority and expertise of its dayonim and it's a great honour to have been appointed to this position."

Andrew Cohen, Federation president, said Dayan Hool's "significant reputation and knowledge will serve to further establish the Federation Beth Din as one of utmost calibre, and ensure its long-term future as a primary asset of the organisation".

The other two dayonim on the Federation Beth Din are Dayan Yisroel Yaakov Lichtenstein, rosh beth din, and Dayan Moshe Dovid Elzas.

Dayan Hool is due to move back to the UK towards the end of the summer to take up his new role.