One of the most controversial rabbis to serve the Manchester community has died in Israel.

Rabbi Ivan Wachmann has died aged 77 . He was the longtime minister of the Holy Law South Broughton Hebrew Congregation, but was dismissed in 1990 after a series of allegations about sexual misconduct.

In May 1990 allegations surfaced that the Irish-born Rabbi Wachmann had shown a “fatal attraction” to female congregants during marital counselling sessions. After an investigation instigated by the then Chief Rabbi Lord Jakobovits, Rabbi Wachmann was fired as rabbi of the congregation.

Lord Jakobovits said at the time that Rabbi Wachmann had “conducted himself in a manner unbecoming of a rabbi.”

In 1993, Rabbi Wachmann moved to Florida, leaving his wife and children in Manchester . He became rabbi of the Conservative Temple Shalom Synagogue in Pompano Beach, Miami, and remarried.