Rabbi Ariel Abel is returning to an old stamping ground with his appointment as part-time minister of Liverpool's Princes Road Synagogue.

He served the Merseyside community in his early rabbinical years in the late 1990s, before going on to Waltham Forest Hebrew Congregation and Radlett Synagogue, from which he resigned in 2010 to pursue educational interests.

Rabbi Abel will conduct his first service back at the Grade I-listed synagogue next weekend and, on average, will officiate on one Shabbat in two. He will also undertake some pastoral duties.

Princes Road chairman Alaster Burman said the community had been without a minister for "quite some time". He believed Rabbi Abel -"a good orator who is well liked by young people" - would attract more congregants.