Rabbi Neil Janes will take up his new post as minister of the Liberal-affiliated South Bucks Jewish Community at the beginning of next month.

After five years as part of the rabbinic team at West London Synagogue, he said the part-time role at the 200-member congregation was an “amazing opportunity”.

“People are moving out of London for space. It is a warm and welcoming community with lots of potential,” he told the JC.

It is also closer to where he and his wife Michelle (joint interim chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council) live.

Rabbi Janes said he was happy to be moving to Liberal Judaism, whose leadership he described as “brave and courageous”. He has already officiated for the High Holy-Days, when South Bucks joined forces with other Liberal communities for digital services.

He will continue teaching privately as well as working on a PhD at King’s College London on ideas of identity and gender in rabbinic literature.

South Bucks, which has met mostly in the Friends House in Amersham, was previously served by Rabbi Charley Baginsky, the joint interim director of Liberal Judaism. When she was seconded full-time to Liberal HQ, South Bucks’ former minister Rabbi Rachel Benjamin stepped in.