A SENIOR rabbi who alleges he is being forced from his post by synagogue bosses has won a High Court order halting all disciplinary proceedings against him.

Rabbi Mendel Lew has been chief rabbi at the Stanmore and Canons Park Synagogue, in London Road, Stanmore, since 2006.

The rabbi claims the synagogue's bosses, The United Synagogue, have "trumped up" procedures to get him out of his job.

He won a High Court victory last Wednesday when Judge Geoffrey Robinson granted an injunction stopping any proceedings relating to discipline or his capability to do the job.

Judge Robinson said he had "serious concerns" about the motive in setting up a capability procedure to investigate Rabbi Lew's ability to do his job.

He said: "The claimant's short point is that the sudden invention of a capability procedure is a cynical attempt to use it specifically with a view to get rid of him.

"The claimant's argument is that any attempt to use it, against the background of this case and on the facts of this case, amounts to a breach of contract."

He added the procedure had only been mentioned after previous internal proceedings had resulted in the Rabbi keeping his job in the face of concerns about his work.

The judge said: "There is, at the very least, a very strong inference that the capability procedure was devised in response to the perceived failure of the disciplinary proceedings.

"There is, in my judgment, a real prospect of demonstrating at trial that the capability procedure has indeed been trumped up as a means of dismissing the claimant.

"In my judgment, it is right that the claimant should have the opportunity to explore that at trial and, until then, a halt should be called on any disciplinary or capability proceedings."

A trial of the breach of contract issue will take place later this year.