British Friends of Return/Shuvu

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Golders Green trust funding the Shuvu school network in Israel, now in deficit after interest-free loans from its trustees

British Friends of Return/Shuvu

Logo Shuvu school Arad 2009.jpg
Type Other
Founded 2003-12-02 (registered)
Registration ID Registered charity 1100984
Headquarters London NW11
Area served Israel, Throughout England
Key people David Blachman (chair)
Website www.shuvu.org.uk


British Friends of Return/Shuvu was established by a declaration of trust of 5 March 2003, amended on 24 November 2003 and 7 May 2014, and registered on 2 December 2003; register areas are Israel and England.[1] Its trustees are David Blachman (chair, who runs it day to day), Jizchak Kruskal and Henry Last, with a principal office in London NW11 (the register gives another NW11 address); the independent examiner is Howard Schwalbe ACA of Prestwich (PDF p.3–4).[1][2] Its objects are the education of young people and adults in Israel and the UK (PDF p.5).[1] In the year to 30 November 2025 donations fell to £115,734 (2024: £419,531) and payments to £64,293 (2024: £603,441), of which grants to "Shuvu, Israel" were £46,301 (2024: £563,858) and general office costs £16,553 (2024: £35,311). It had net liabilities of £122,074 (2024: £173,515), "primarily due to loans extended to the charity by the trustees and others on an interest free basis" (PDF p.5–6, 8, 14–15).[2]

Objects and activities

The charity's registered objects read: "FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT TO PROMOTE THE EDUCATION (INCLUDING SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL TRAINING) OF YOUNG PEOPLE AND ADULTS IN ISRAEL AND THE UK IN SUCH WAYS AS THE CHARITY TRUSTEES THINK FIT, INCLUDING BY AWARDING SCHOLARSHIPS, MAINTENANCE ALLOWANCES OR GRANTS TENABLE AT ANY UNIVERSITY, COLLEGE OR INSTITUTION OF HIGHER OR FURTHER EDUCATION."[1]

The register describes its activities as: "To pursue the objects of the charity with all the resources available to the charity."[1]

Register classifications: Education/training.[1]

Areas of operation recorded on the register: Israel, Throughout England.[1]

Trustees

Current trustees, with other charities on which the same register trustee ID appears:[1]

Trustees of British Friends of Return/Shuvu (register, October 2026)
Trustee Appointed Chair Other trusteeships
David Blachman not recorded Yes —
Jizchak Kruskal not recorded The British Friends of Midrash Shmuel (1050989)
Henry Last not recorded Altamont Limited (273971); Premierquote Limited (801957)

Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)

Trustees shown in archived register pages
Capture date Trustees listed Source
2013-05-03 Henry Last; David Blachman; Jizchak Kruskal Yizchak Kruskal [3]
2014-05-06 Henry Last; David Blachman; Jizchak Kruskal [4]
2021-01-16 Jizchak Kruskal – also trustee of The British Friends of Midrash Shmuel; Henry Last – also trustee of Altamont Limited, Premierquote Limited; Aryeh Melinek (from 28 November 2017) – also trustee of Legadel; David Blachman (chair) [5]

Finances

Income and expenditure, five most recent reported years
Financial year end Income Expenditure
2021-11-30 £330,903 £394,661
2022-11-30 £404,859 £460,271
2023-11-30 £628,503 £563,317
2024-11-30 £419,531 £604,941
2025-11-30 £115,734 £64,293

Source: register annual-return history.[1]

Archived accounts

Accounts no longer on the live register were found in the UK Government Web Archive:

  • Accounts for the year ended 30/11/2007[6]
  • Accounts for the year ended 30/11/2008[7]
  • Accounts for the year ended 30/11/2010[8]
  • Accounts for the year ended 30/11/2011[9]
  • Accounts for the year ended 30/11/2012[10]
  • Accounts for the year ended 30/11/2014[11]
  • Accounts for the year ended 30/11/2015[12]
  • Accounts for the year ended 30/11/2016[13]
  • Accounts for the year ended 30/11/2017[14]
  • Accounts for the year ended 30/11/2018[15]

Funding in Israel

  • FY2025 grants to "Shuvu, Israel" £46,301 (2024: £563,858) (PDF p.14).[2]

Israeli partners

Shuvu, a network of schools in Israel. The British Friends website says it began in 1990 "with two schools providing education for Russian immigrant children" and has 20 kindergartens, 18 elementary, 22 junior high and 9 high schools in "21 cities throughout Israel"; it states that "Shuvu aims to restore to the State of Israel the values of Eretz Yisrael".[16][17][18]

Activity beyond the Green Line and support for the IDF

Findings are graded by confidence. "Partner" findings concern the Israeli recipient organisation, not proven use of UK funds.

Evidence of activity beyond the 1949 armistice line
Finding Confidence
The British Friends website says the schools are in "21 cities throughout Israel" without listing them; no activity beyond the Green Line is stated.[17] Low

Support for the IDF: No IDF or military funding is stated.[2] The British Friends website's news list includes an item titled "Swords of iron Campaign" (24 October 2023), which uses the Israeli name for the war that began in October 2023; its content was not read for this profile.[18]

Controversies and regulatory action

  • No Charity Commission inquiry, Official Warning or Gazette insolvency notice naming this charity was found, and its register entry shows no regulatory alert;[19] it is not among the charities named in the Commission's cheque-cashing class-inquiry announcements (May, September and December 2025) or in the September 2026 statement of results.[20][21][22][23] The charities in the Commission's settlements class inquiry (opened August 2026) have not been named, so it is not known whether this charity is among them.[24]
  • Funded by loans from trustees. The charity's deficit arises from interest-free loans by the trustees and others; other creditors were £145,675 (2024: £180,675) (PDF p.6, 15).[2]
  • Office costs relative to grants. General office costs of £16,553 equalled more than a third of the £46,301 sent to Shuvu (PDF p.14).[2]

Other registers and records

Scotland and Northern Ireland

No entry was found on the Scottish Charity Register for this charity (register export dated 14 October 2026, searched by name).[25] No entry was found on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register (API name searches returned zero results).[26]

The Gazette

Searches of The Gazette notice feeds (all notices, insolvency and company) for the charity's name found no insolvency, winding-up or strike-off notice.[27]

Grants recorded by 360Giving

No grants received or made by this charity are recorded in 360Giving data.[28]

Sanctions screening

The charity's name, its current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages, trustees and officers named in the accounts read for this profile and (for charitable companies) its Companies House officers were screened against the UK Sanctions List and the OFSI Consolidated List. No match was found. Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor (UK sanctions ID RUS1127) does not appear among this charity's trustees or officers.[29]

Land and property

The register records that the charity does not own or lease land or property.[1] No title registers were purchased; the HM Land Registry interactive search blocked automated access.[30]

US counterparts (ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer)

Organisation EIN Latest filing year Revenue (US$) Expenses (US$)
Shuvu Return Inc[31] 452600601 2023 6,762,664 6,207,218

These US organisations share the name or beneficiary of the UK charity; no financial flows between them and the UK charity were established.

Parliament

Hansard exact-phrase searches for "Return/Shuvu", "Shuvu" returned 0 contributions in total.[32]

Web archive

  • shuvu.org.uk: 9 yearly captures, first 2018-09-05, last 2026-02-11.[33]
  • shuvu.org: 24 yearly captures, first 2002-09-23, last 2026-02-16.[34]

The UK Government Web Archive holds 2 archived Charity Commission register pages used in this profile (cited in the sections above). The 2021 archived full print showed the status "Charity reporting is up to date" and "Other regulators: No information available".[5]

External links

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Charity Commission for England and Wales, Register of Charities public extract (tables charity, charity_trustee, charity_annual_return_history, charity_area_of_operation, charity_classification, charity_other_names), extract dated 14 October 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Charity Commission, British Friends of Return/Shuvu (1100984): accounts and annual returns Register of Charities; latest accounts downloaded 16 October 2026 ("PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
  3. ↑ Register entry 1100984, contact and trustees (capture of 20130503) UK Government Web Archive.
  4. ↑ Register entry 1100984, contact and trustees (capture of 20140506) UK Government Web Archive.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Register entry 1100984, full print (capture of 20210116) UK Government Web Archive.
  6. ↑ British Friends of Return/Shuvu accounts, year ended 2007-11-30 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20130503).
  7. ↑ British Friends of Return/Shuvu accounts, year ended 2008-11-30 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20140506).
  8. ↑ British Friends of Return/Shuvu accounts, year ended 2010-11-30 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20140506).
  9. ↑ British Friends of Return/Shuvu accounts, year ended 2011-11-30 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20140506).
  10. ↑ British Friends of Return/Shuvu accounts, year ended 2012-11-30 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20140506).
  11. ↑ British Friends of Return/Shuvu accounts, year ended 2014-11-30 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200103).
  12. ↑ British Friends of Return/Shuvu accounts, year ended 2015-11-30 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200103).
  13. ↑ British Friends of Return/Shuvu accounts, year ended 2016-11-30 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200103).
  14. ↑ British Friends of Return/Shuvu accounts, year ended 2017-11-30 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200103).
  15. ↑ British Friends of Return/Shuvu accounts, year ended 2018-11-30 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200103).
  16. ↑ British Friends of Shuvu, home page Wayback Machine, capture of 5 September 2018 ("Starting in 1990 with two schools providing education for Russian immigrant children, Shuvu has now established a network of 64 schools and kindergartens at 21 sites throughout Israel").
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 British Friends of Shuvu, What shuvu.org.uk, retrieved 16 October 2026 ("20 kindergartens, 18 elementary schools, 22 junior high schools, 9 high schools, 21 cities throughout Israel"; contact address 17 Golders Court, Woodstock Road, London NW11).
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 British Friends of Shuvu, home page Wayback Machine, capture of 11 February 2026 ("Shuvu aims to restore to the State of Israel the values of Eretz Yisrael"; news item "Swords of iron Campaign", 24 October 2023).
  19. ↑ Charity Commission, Register of Charities, charity overview page (register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/-/charity-details/ followed by the organisation number) for each of the 25 batch-16 charities, all retrieved successfully on 16 October 2026 and checked for a "Regulatory alerts" section; none was shown for any of them. Nineteen registered charities showed "Charity reporting is up to date (on time)"; Halacha Lemoshe Trust showed "up to date (8 days late)", The Josh Charitable Trust "up to date (140 days late)" and The Pauline Aviges-Graham Foundation "up to date (34 days late)"; Songbrook Limited, Shekel Limited and Refeeah Trust showed "Removed charity".
  20. ↑ Charity Commission, Serious concerns over use of £22 million triggers investigation by charity regulator GOV.UK, 14 May 2025.
  21. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator opens next phase of investigation into 105 charities connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 1 September 2025.
  22. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator announces next charities to be investigated as part of inquiry connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 4 December 2025.
  23. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator concludes investigation into 4 charities as class inquiry continues GOV.UK, 9 September 2026, with Statement of the results of a class inquiry (same date).
  24. ↑ Charity Commission, Charity regulator opens inquiry into charities working in illegal Israeli settlements GOV.UK, 5 August 2026 (a fact-finding statutory class inquiry initially involving 8 charities which "are not being publicly named at this time").
  25. ↑ Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Scottish Charity Register download OSCR, export dated 14 October 2026; keyword search of the 25 batch-16 charity names found no matching Scottish registration.
  26. ↑ Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, Register of charities search API CCNI, searched 16 October 2026 (keyword searches for each of the 25 batch-16 charity names returned no matching charity).
  27. ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Shuvu' The Gazette, searched 16 October 2026.
  28. ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-1100984 360Giving, queried 16 October 2026.
  29. ↑ Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK Sanctions List (CSV); Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets (ConList.csv). Batch-16 screening covered 247 name strings: the 25 charity names, current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages, Companies House officers of the five charitable companies, and trustees, examiners and other people named in the accounts and sources read for this batch; matching on surname plus forename tokens, reviewed manually. No forename-and-surname match for any person was found; token matches were surname-only coincidences (for example Miller, Shah, Weinberg and Rapoport) or the generic words "UK", "Ltd" and "Company Limited"; lists downloaded October 2026.
  30. ↑ HM Land Registry, Search for land and property information GOV.UK – the service returned HTTP 403 (bot protection) to automated access in October 2026; no titles were looked up or purchased. Candidate title numbers below come from the free CCOD / OCOD datasets (October 2026 release), not from paid title registers.
  31. ↑ Shuvu Return Inc – Nonprofit Explorer ProPublica, viewed 16 October 2026.
  32. ↑ UK Parliament, Hansard search API: contributions matching the exact phrase "Shuvu" Hansard, queried 16 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).
  33. ↑ Internet Archive CDX index for shuvu.org.uk Wayback Machine, queried 16 October 2026.
  34. ↑ Internet Archive CDX index for shuvu.org Wayback Machine, queried 16 October 2026.
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