Hackney Council’s education department has sent out a letter strongly advising parents and guardians against sending their children to Rabbi Chaim Halpern for counselling.

Addressed to headteachers and “setting leads” - a phrase used for those in charge of children centres and non-educational institutions – the letter refers to allegations of sexual impropriety made against the Golders Green rabbi as “very serious”.

The letter, written by Paul Senior, the council’s interim education director, reads: “As a local authority, having been made aware of these concerns, we felt it was important to ensure that you too had sight of them.”

The February 28 letter claims the allegations are currently under investigation by the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations (UOHC), and that while the investigation is under way the council “would strongly advise [parents] not to refer any children in your care to Chaim Halpern, and to ensure that the parents, carers and families of your children are also made aware of the situation.”

Rabbi Halpern has denied all allegations of sexual impropriety.

Chaim Halpern letter Hackney Council

Hackney Council's strongly-worded letter advising parents and "setting leads" against sending children to Rabbi Chaim Halpern for counselling

Rabbi Halpern was embroiled in sexual abuse allegations ten years ago, but no charges were brought against him. At the time, he stepped down from the presiding rabbinate of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew congregations under pressure from local rabbis over allegations of inappropriate conduct in counselling sessions.

Rabbi Halpern protested his innocence despite a number of prominent local rabbis, including the influential Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu, then head of the London Beth Din, concluding that he was “not fit and proper to act in any rabbinic capacity”.