Cheadle’s Yeshurun Synagogue in South Manchester has selected Birmingham’s Rabbi Chanan Atlas to be its new minister.
Two hundred members of the Modern Orthodox community voted for the new position in a special meeting on Sunday.
The rabbi and his wife Nechama, both Israeli-born and in their mid-30s, will leave Birmingham’s Central Synagogue, which they joined in 2012.
They will move to Manchester with their four children — 12-year-old twins Reuben and Elazar, Shir, eight and Adi, who is four. Rabbi Atlas replaces Rabbi Chaim Kanterovitz who was Yeshurun minister for 10 years but moved to Borehamwood and Elstree Synagogue in October.
Central president Geoffrey Clements said the recruitment process to find a replacement minister has already begun. “We understand why the Atlases need to look after the educational needs of their growing family.
Without a Jewish secondary school in Birmingham, this is a challenge. They will be very difficult to replace.”
Yeshurun’s chairman Tony Kaye said the new couple, due to start after Pesach next year, are perfect for the “forward-thinking kehilla-like Yeshurun.
“Rabbi Chanan has a deep knowledge of halachah, Tanach, Talmud and Jewish history, while Rebetzen Nechama is not only a scholar herself but is also an educational counsellor and teacher,” he said.
