Centurian Charities

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Clapton charitable company that reports its grants as fundraising costs

Centurian Charities

Type Charitable company
Founded 1980-11-26 (registered)
Registration ID Registered charity 280880; company 01472614
Headquarters 23 Overlea Road, London, E5 9BG
Area served Israel, United States


Centurian Charities is a charitable company (01472614) registered on 26 November 1980; register areas are Israel and the United States, with a contact address of 23 Overlea Road, London E5 9BG.[1] The accounts for the year to 31 March 2025, independently examined by Dr P P Smulovitch, give the registered office as Hallswelle House, 1 Hallswelle Road, London NW11 0DH (the examiner's address), and its trustees as D Segal, S S Meyers, D Feldman (secretary) and S Friedman. Income was £566,088 (donations £309,694; deed of covenant £256,388) and funds £790,386 (PDF p.3, 7, 12).[2]

Objects and activities

The charity's registered objects read: "FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF RELIGION, IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE ORTHODOX JEWISH FAITH, RELIEF OF POVERTY, AND SUCH OTHER PURPOSES AS ARE RECOGNISED BY ENGLISH LAW, AS CHARITABLE."[1]

The register describes its activities as: "The distribution of income for charitable purposes, specifically for religious activities. The charity helps the elderly as well as children and people with disabilities."[1]

Register classifications: General Charitable Purposes, Religious Activities.[1]

Areas of operation recorded on the register: Israel, United States.[1]

Trustees

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

Trustees of Centurian Charities (register, October 2026)
Trustee Appointed Chair Other trusteeships
Sara Friedman not recorded —
Dwora Feldman 2018-12-12 Ahavath Chessed Charitable Association Limited (313121); Amhurst Park Education and Donations (1152424); Birchas Moshe Trust (1083889); Entwood Charities Limited (280555); North London Charities Ltd (312740); The Well Trust Limited (1180207)
Spencer Shalom Meyers 2022-07-01 Ahavath Chessed Charitable Association Limited (313121); Amhurst Park Education and Donations (1152424); Beis Efraim (1155310)
David Segal 2022-07-01 Ahavath Chessed Charitable Association Limited (313121); Amhurst Park Education and Donations (1152424); Beis Efraim (1155310); Hatzola Northwest Trust (1041441); Hatzola Northwest Trust Limited (1205904); Mead Charitable Trust (1112692); The Sherwood Foundation CIO (1176311)

Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)

Trustees shown in archived register pages
Capture date Trustees listed Source
2011-01-23 Heinrich Feldman; Dvora Feldman; Sarah Friedman [3]
2012-05-04 Heinrich Feldman; Dvora Feldman; Sarah Friedman [4]
2021-01-12 Heinrich Feldman (chair) – also trustee of The Well Trust Limited, North London Charities Ltd, The Schonfeld Square Foundation, Amhurst Park Education and Donations, Entwood Charities Limited, Beis Efraim, Birchas Moshe Trust, Ahavath Chessed Charitable Association Limited, Suncroft Donations Trust, Keren Hatorah, Friends of Wiznitz Limited, The Viznitz (Keren Nitzchi) Foundation, Agudas Israel Organisation of Great Britain; Sarah Friedman; Dvora Feldman (from 12 December 2018) – also trustee of North London Charities Ltd, Amhurst Park Education and Donations, Entwood Charities Limited, Birchas Moshe Trust, Ahavath Chessed Charitable Association Limited [5]

Companies House records Spencer Shalom Meyers (director from 1 July 2022) as resident in Israel; Heinrich Feldman resigned on 22 March 2022.[6]

Companies House officers

Companies House lists 6 current and former officers of the charitable company (01472614), 5 of them active.[7] Officers recorded as resident outside the UK: Spencer Shalom Meyers (Israel, active).[7]

Finances

Income and expenditure, five most recent reported years
Financial year end Income Expenditure
2021-03-31 £498,107 £504,429
2022-03-31 £474,112 £52,253
2023-03-31 £481,501 £593,480
2024-03-31 £501,424 £327,050
2025-03-31 £566,088 £356,006

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 31/03/2007[8]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2008[9]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2014[10]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2015[11]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2016[12]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2017[13]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2018[14]

Funding in Israel

  • Year to March 2025: donations of £349,450, recipients not named (PDF p.7, 13).[2]

Israeli partners

Not identified.[2]

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
No recipient or place is named.[2] Not established

Support for the IDF: No IDF or military funding is stated.[2]

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;[15] 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.[16][17][18][19] 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.[20]
  • Grants classified as fundraising costs. Payments of £349,450 (2024: £324,500) appear under "costs of raising donations and legacies – Donations", while charitable activities total only £6,556 of governance costs; no recipient is named and Israel is not mentioned (PDF p.7, 13).[2]
  • Contradictory statements. The report says there are no paid employees, but note 11 gives an average of four management staff; it says funds are "derived on an annual basis from investment", yet investment income was £6 (PDF p.3–4, 13).[2]
  • Related undertakings. £50,000 owed to related undertakings at March 2024 was repaid during the year (PDF p.9, 14).[2]
  • Board shared with Ahavath Chessed. D Segal, S S Meyers and D Feldman are also directors of Ahavath Chessed Charitable Association (313121); Companies House records Meyers as resident in Israel.[6][21] A Sara Friedman who is an officer of this company is also an officer of Towhaven Limited (01549325), which shares its name with an Ahavath Chessed subsidiary.[22]

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, downloaded 15 October 2026 and searched by name).[23] No entry was found on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register (API name searches returned zero results).[24]

The Gazette

Gazette insolvency notices returned for "Centurian" concern unrelated companies and individuals (1998–2013); searches for "Centurian Charities" returned only Companies House filing lists, and no notice naming the charity was found.[25]

Grants recorded by 360Giving

No grants received or made by this charity are recorded in 360Giving data.[26]

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.[27]

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.[28]

Parliament

Hansard searches for 'Centurian Charities', 'Centurian' returned 12 contributions in total; those not listed above were not established to concern this charity.[29]

Web archive

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]

See also

External links

  • No current official website.

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 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), extract dated 14 October 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Charity Commission, Centurian Charities (280880): accounts and annual returns Register of Charities; latest accounts downloaded 15 October 2026 ("PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
  3. ↑ Register entry 280880, contact and trustees (capture of 20110123) UK Government Web Archive.
  4. ↑ Register entry 280880, contact and trustees (capture of 20120504) UK Government Web Archive.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Register entry 280880, full print (capture of 20210112) UK Government Web Archive.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Companies House, Company 01472614 (Centurian Charities Limited): officers Find and update company information, viewed 15 October 2026.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Company 01472614: officers Companies House, viewed 15 October 2026.
  8. ↑ Centurian Charities accounts, year ended 2007-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20120504).
  9. ↑ Centurian Charities accounts, year ended 2008-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20120504).
  10. ↑ Centurian Charities accounts, year ended 2014-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200106).
  11. ↑ Centurian Charities accounts, year ended 2015-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200106).
  12. ↑ Centurian Charities accounts, year ended 2016-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200106).
  13. ↑ Centurian Charities accounts, year ended 2017-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200106).
  14. ↑ Centurian Charities accounts, year ended 2018-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200106).
  15. ↑ 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 every charity in batches 1–7 (175 pages, all retrieved successfully on 15 October 2026) and checked for a "Regulatory alerts" section. Alerts appeared only for Mifal Hachesed Vehatzedokoh (1139320), Ezer Viznitz Foundation (1161881), BC Trust (1155555), Vyoel Moshe Charitable Trust (327054) – all named in the cheque-cashing class inquiry – and The Gevurath Ari Torah Academy Trust (1003102).
  16. ↑ Charity Commission, Serious concerns over use of £22 million triggers investigation by charity regulator GOV.UK, 14 May 2025.
  17. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator opens next phase of investigation into 105 charities connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 1 September 2025.
  18. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator announces next charities to be investigated as part of inquiry connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 4 December 2025.
  19. ↑ 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), both retrieved 15 October 2026.
  20. ↑ Charity Commission, Charity regulator opens inquiry into charities working in illegal Israeli settlements GOV.UK, 5 August 2026, retrieved 15 October 2026 (a fact-finding statutory class inquiry initially involving 8 charities which "are not being publicly named at this time").
  21. ↑ Companies House, Company 00711566 (Ahavath Chessed Charitable Association Limited): officers Find and update company information, viewed 15 October 2026.
  22. ↑ Companies House, Sara Friedman: appointments (officer of company 01472614; the list includes TOWHAVEN LIMITED, 01549325) Find and update company information, viewed 15 October 2026.
  23. ↑ Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Scottish Charity Register download OSCR, downloaded October 2026; keyword search of the batch-7 charity names found no matching Scottish registration (the only hit, Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem Lieutenancy of Scotland, is a separate Scottish body).
  24. ↑ Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, Register of charities search API CCNI, searched 15 October 2026 (keyword searches for each batch-7 charity name returned zero results).
  25. ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Centurian Charities' The Gazette, searched 15 October 2026.
  26. ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-280880 360Giving, queried 15 October 2026.
  27. ↑ Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK Sanctions List (CSV); Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets (ConList.csv). Batch-7 screening covered 428 name strings: the 25 charity names, current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages (UK Government Web Archive), Companies House officers of the charitable companies, and trustees, officers, lenders, subsidiaries and related bodies named in the accounts read for this batch (including Ambertown International Ltd); matching on surname plus forename tokens, reviewed manually. The single forename-and-surname candidate (a former Wimbledon and District Synagogue director against a UK counter-terrorism designation) has different middle names and was not treated as a match; all other candidates were surname-only coincidences or generic word overlaps; lists downloaded October 2026.
  28. ↑ 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.
  29. ↑ UK Parliament, Hansard search API: contributions matching 'Centurian Charities' Hansard, queried 15 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints).
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