Chabad Lubavitch Centres North East London and Essex Limited

Ilford-based Chabad charity; Official Warning January 2025 over fundraising for an IDF soldier

Chabad Lubavitch Centres North East London and Essex Limited
Type	Charitable company (Chabad-Lubavitch)
Logo
Founded	1983 (centre); incorporated 21 November 2007
Founder(s)
Dissolved
Registration ID	Company 06432715; charity 1123001
Status
Headquarters	Doris Shpiro House, 395–397 Eastern Avenue, Gants Hill, Ilford IG2 6LR
Location
Area served
Services
Registration
Key people	Aryeh M. Sufrin MBE and Deborah Sufrin (executive directors since 1983)
Website	chabadilford.co.uk (defunct as of October 2026); Internet Archive holdings of chabadilford.co.uk
Remarks

Chabad Lubavitch Centres North East London and Essex Limited (CLC-NELE; also Ilford Chabad, Chabad Lubavitch for Ilford; synagogue name Beis Hamedrash Chabad) is the charitable company that runs the Chabad-Lubavitch centre at Doris Shpiro House, 395–397 Eastern Avenue, Gants Hill, and branch houses in Buckhurst Hill, Epping, Southend and Havering. Company number 06432715 (guarantee company, incorporated 21 November 2007; name changed from the singular “Centre” on 15 August 2017). Charity number 1123001 (registered 28 February 2008).

It is an autonomous constituent of the Chabad Lubavitch UK network, not a subsidiary of the Stamford Hill headquarters charity. On 9 January 2025 the Charity Commission issued an Official Warning after trustees raised about £2,280 for a soldier of the Israel Defense Forces and sent him cash and “non-lethal military equipment.” Helen Earner, then director for regulatory services, said it is “not lawful, or acceptable, for a charity to raise funds to support a soldier of a foreign military.” The register has carried a regulatory alert.

History

The Ilford centre opened in 1983 under Rabbi Aryeh M. Sufrin MBE and Deborah Sufrin, who remain executive directors. From 2001 the house and synagogue have sat at Doris Shpiro House, Eastern Avenue. Between about 2013 and 2017 the operation moved temporarily to Gaysham Avenue, Gants Hill, while Eastern Avenue was demolished and rebuilt as a 4,000 sq ft facility. Rabbi Moshe Muller was assistant director and assistant rabbi from 1996 to 2016.

JCR-UK lists ritual as Ashkenazi Orthodox and affiliation as “an autonomous constituent of the Chabad Lubavitch UK Network, and part of the worldwide Chabad-Lubavitch Movement.”

Relation to Chabad Lubavitch UK headquarters

British Chabad’s historic headquarters is Lubavitch House, 107–115 Stamford Hill, N16 5RP. The umbrella charity is Chabad Lubavitch UK (227638), governed by a corporate trustee, Lubavitch (UK) Limited (02932344). Directors of that trustee include Rabbis Yeremi Angyalfi, Paul Pesach Efune, Shmuel Lew, Yehuda Pink and Yitzchok Sufrin, and Stephen Chevern. Day-to-day names on recent accounts include Rabbi Yitchok Sufrin, finance director Katherine Eaton and chief operating officer Jon Benjamin. World headquarters lists the Stamford Hill house as “Chabad Lubavitch UK Hdqts.”

NELE is not 227638. It files its own accounts, owns or leases its own sites, and has its own trustee board. The link is movement discipline and family: the Sufrin name appears both at Ilford (Aryeh M. Sufrin, Yaakov Sufrin) and on the Stamford Hill trustee/hanholo lists (Yitzchok Sufrin, A. M. Sufrin). Golders Green Chabad runs through a third charity, Tzivos Hashem UK (1163714). Chabad houses in Britain are typically separately incorporated; the Stamford Hill charity is first among equals, not a holding company.

Branches

Centre	Notes
Beis Hamedrash Chabad / Ilford HQ	Doris Shpiro House, 395–397 Eastern Avenue, IG2 6LR
Chabad Lubavitch for Buckhurst Hill	Branch of NELE
Chabad Lubavitch for Epping	Branch of NELE
Chabad Lubavitch for Southend	Westcliff; Rabbi Tzvi Birnhack and Mushkie Birnhack from 2022
Chabad Lubavitch for Havering	Launched February 2020 by Rabbi and Mrs Sufrin from Gants Hill; Collier Row, Romford, Hornchurch, Upminster, Rainham; no separate company

Charitable status of the branches is the Ilford company.

Objects, money, donors

Commission activity line: advancement of the Orthodox Jewish religion; staff and volunteers; service delivery; partnerships. Area of operation in practice: north-east London and Essex. Year to 31 December 2024: income £837,200 (almost all donations), expenditure £802,803; 10 staff, 6 trustees; one employee in the £60,000–£70,000 band. Companies House registered office: Suite 1, 2c Bourne Court, Southend Road, Woodford Green IG8 8HD. Operating address remains Doris Shpiro House.

Donors

• Gerald and Gail Ronson Family Foundation

Official Warning, January 2025

In October 2023 the charity put up a fundraising page for an IDF soldier stationed in the north of the Zionist colony. The page was taken down in January 2024 after raising about £2,280. Of that, £937 went directly to the soldier; trustees could not account for how he spent it. The rest was spent on non-lethal military equipment bought by the trustees and sent to the same man. The Commission received more than 180 complaints, opened a compliance case in December 2023, and on 9 January 2025 issued an Official Warning under section 75A.

Findings: the activity was outside the objects and not capable of being charitable; trustees failed to act in the charity’s best interests or protect its reputation; misconduct and/or mismanagement and breach of trust. Earner: British charities with the right objects may promote the efficiency of the UK armed forces; “Providing aid or military supplies to any foreign armed force is not a charitable purpose, and no charity can legally undertake such activity.” Failure to implement the warning’s requirements can lead to further action.

That warning is the Commission’s published template for later cases, including Mizrachi (UK) Israel Support Trust (promotion of an IDF-kit appeal, November 2025).

Trustees and officers

Commission register, six trustees:

Name	Role	Appointed (register / CH)	Other trusteeships on the register
Brian Stephen Mitchell	Chair; company secretary from 21 November 2007	incorporation	—
Daren Mark Burney	Trustee / director	6 July 2014	—
Joanne Alison Osen	Trustee / director	1 June 2018	—
Yaakov Sufrin (Yaakov Yehuda Sufrin)	Trustee / director	1 May 2020	—
Paul Jonathan Groman-Marks	Trustee / director	21 November 2007 (CH)	—
Eli Itzinger	Trustee	2007 (Giving is Great / register)	Peninim Charity Trust; Chabad Lubavitch of Bournemouth; Chabad Lubavitch of South London; Chabad Terror Victims Project; Chabad of Hampstead Garden Suburb Limited

Companies House also lists Adam Simon Brandman as secretary from 13 August 2013. Endole names Joanne Alison Osen as a person with significant control.

Eli Itzinger is the board member who also sits on Chabad Terror Victims Project and on other English Chabad companies. Yaakov Sufrin is the generational link to the founding couple.

Officers

Chabad Lubavitch Centres North East London and Essex Limited (06432715). Officers as filed at Companies House. Aryeh Sufrin MBE, the executive director in communal reports, is not on this list.

Name	Role	Status	Date of birth	Appointed	Resigned	Nationality	Residence	Correspondence address
Brian Stephen Mitchell	Director	Active	August 1953	21 November 2007	—	British	England	19-20 Bourne Court, Southend Road, Woodford Green, IG8 8HD
Brian Stephen Mitchell	Secretary	Active	—	21 November 2007	—	British	—	19-20 Bourne Court, Southend Road, Woodford Green, IG8 8HD
Paul Jonathan Groman-Marks	Director	Active	September 1960	21 November 2007	—	British	United Kingdom	19-20 Bourne Court, Southend Road, Woodford Green, IG8 8HD
Eli Itzinger	Director	Active	December 1961	21 November 2007	—	British	United Kingdom	19-20 Bourne Court, Southend Road, Woodford Green, IG8 8HD
Daren Mark Burney	Director	Active	August 1964	6 July 2014	—	British	England	46 Forest Lane, Chigwell, Essex, IG7 5AE
Joanne Alison Osen	Director	Active	July 1962	1 June 2018	—	British	England	Suite 1, 2c Bourne Court, Southend Road, Woodford Green, IG8 8HD
Yaakov Yehuda Sufrin	Director	Active	August 1989	1 May 2020	—	British	United States	15 Highwood Gardens, Ilford, IG5 0AZ
Adam Simon Brandman	Secretary	Active	—	13 August 2013	—	—	—	19-20 Bourne Court, Southend Road, Woodford Green, IG8 8HD
Leigh Ryce Young	Director	Resigned	September 1972	1 December 2019	11 December 2023	English	England	19-20 Bourne Court, Southend Road, Woodford Green, IG8 8HD
Corporate Appointments Limited	Nominee director	Resigned	—	21 November 2007	21 November 2007	—	—	16 Churchill Way, Cardiff, CF10 2DX
Secretarial Appointments Limited	Nominee secretary	Resigned	—	21 November 2007	21 November 2007	—	—	16 Churchill Way, Cardiff, CF10 2DX

Contact

Chabad Lubavitch Centre, Doris Shpiro House, 397 Eastern Avenue, Gants Hill, Ilford IG2 6LR

Tel. 020 8554 1624

admin@chabadilford.co.uk

chabadilford.co.uk

See also

• Chabad Lubavitch UK
• Chabad-Lubavitch
• Mizrachi UK
• Westminster Synagogue
• Chabad Terror Victims Project
• British Jewish charities investigated by the Charity Commission