One of the world’s best-known Reform temples reportedly is in turmoil over the unexpected departure of its rabbi.

Some members of Toronto’s renowned Holy Blossom Temple are “incensed” at a recently negotiated deal that will see Rabbi John Moscowitz step down next month, the Toronto-based Globe and Mail newspaper reported in its May 26 edition.

“Under the accord, Rabbi Moscowitz, 60, will take an unusual, fully paid, three-year sabbatical, effective July 1,” the report said. His retirement would begin in 2015, but he will continue on staff as rabbi emeritus at an “undisclosed salary.”

The settlement, “said to be worth more than a million dollars, was hammered out in protracted legal negotiations,” according to the Globe.

Members of Holy Blossom, a Reform Judaism congregation that was founded in 1856, include some of Toronto’s wealthiest and most philanthropic Jews. The paper reported that many congregants are “outraged” by the decision and by how the temple’s board of directors handled the issue.

“This has been a tremendous act of board mismanagement,” the Globe quoted member Linda Frum, a Canadian senator, as saying. “I am so upset about the way he has been treated. I know [members] who are leaving and others who are considering it.”

Bound by confidentiality agreements, neither Moscowitz nor members of the temple’s board spoke to the Globe. — jta