Chabad Lubavitch in the UK
Activities, institutions and registered bodies of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in the United Kingdom
| Chabad Lubavitch UK
| |
|---|---|
| Logo |  Logo used on chabad.org.uk |
| Type | National organisation of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement; registered charity |
| Registration ID | 227638 (Charity Commission, registered 24 February 1964) |
| Status | Registered; reporting up to date |
| Headquarters | Lubavitch House, 107–115 Stamford Hill, London N16 5RP |
| Location | England, Wales and Scotland |
| Area served | United Kingdom |
| Services | Jewish religious and educational activities |
| Key people | Directors of trustee company Lubavitch (UK) Limited: Rabbi Isaac Hirsh Sufrin, Rabbi Paul Pesach Efune, Rabbi Yeremi Angyalfi, Rabbi Yehuda Pink, Rabbi Samuel Lew, Stephen Chevern |
| Website | chabad.org.uk |
| Remarks | Subject of a Charity Commission statutory inquiry, 2017–2019 |
Chabad Lubavitch in the UK covers the centres, schools, charities and companies of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in England, Wales and Scotland, with notes on Northern Ireland and Ireland. The national body is the charity Chabad Lubavitch UK (registered charity number 227638), based at Lubavitch House in Stamford Hill, north London.[1] On the registers' latest figures, 56 registered Chabad-Lubavitch charities in England and Wales had a combined annual income of £20,490,499, and three Scottish charities a further £463,606.[1][2]
History
Rabbi Nachman Sudak led Chabad in Britain from 1959. Chabad.org described him as having "spearheaded Chabad growth in Britain since 1959 as head of Lubavitch UK". In 1959 he married Fradel Shemtov, whose father, Rabbi Bentzion Shemtov, directed Chabad activities in London.[3] The charity Chabad Lubavitch UK was registered on 24 February 1964.[1]
By Sudak's death in June 2014, Chabad.org counted "14 schools, 25 community Chabad Houses and 11 campus Chabad Houses throughout England". He was appointed OBE in 2001 and sat on the boards of Agudas Chassidei Chabad from 1991, Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch and Machane Yisrael.[3] The Jewish Telegraphic Agency described him as head of Chabad in the UK.[4] His sons include Rabbi Bentzi Sudak and Rabbi Sholom Ber Sudak.[3]
Organisation and key people
The headquarters charity, Chabad Lubavitch UK, reports one trustee, 142 employees and 250 volunteers. For the year to 31 December 2024 it had an income of £6,632,429, including £1,030,000 from one government grant.[1] Its website names Lubavitch (UK) Limited as its trustee corporation.[5] A second company at the same address, Chabad Lubavitch UK Trustees Limited, was incorporated on 2 August 2021.[6]
| Name | Lubavitch (UK) Limited (02932344)[7] | Chabad Lubavitch UK Trustees Limited (13543664)[6] |
|---|---|---|
| Rabbi Yeremi Angyalfi | Director since 17 November 2010 | Director since 2 August 2021 |
| Marc Jonathan Benjamin | Secretary since 26 September 2025 | – |
| Stephen Chevern | Director since 12 June 2019 | – |
| Rabbi Paul Pesach Efune | Director since 17 November 2010 | Director since 2 August 2021 |
| Rabbi Samuel Lew | Director since 6 February 2024 | – |
| Rabbi Yehuda Pink | Director since 18 December 2023 | Director since 2 August 2021 |
| Rabbi Benzion Sudak | – | Director since 2 August 2021 |
| Rabbi Isaac Hirsh Sufrin | Director since 27 May 1997 | Director since 2 August 2021 |
Funding
The seven largest Chabad-Lubavitch charities in England and Wales by latest income:
| Charity no. | Name | Financial year end | Income | Expenditure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 227638[1] | Chabad Lubavitch UK | 31 December 2024 | £6,632,429 | £6,696,279 |
| 1146332[8] | Chabad Jewish Community of Central London | 28 February 2025 | £2,368,682 | £1,785,676 |
| 327485[9] | Colel Chabad | 31 December 2025 | £1,089,228 | £1,028,239 |
| 1123001[10] | Chabad Lubavitch Centres North East London and Essex Limited | 31 December 2025 | £813,106 | £837,849 |
| 1046309[11] | Beis Menachem Chabad Lubavitch | 31 August 2025 | £705,313 | £709,886 |
| 1163714[12] | Tzivos Hashem Uk | 30 September 2025 | £554,851 | £602,919 |
| 1115840[13] | Vista Education and Training Limited | 27 February 2025 | £487,752 | £512,980 |
Colel Chabad (UK) exists, in the register's words, "to raise funds for the world wide Colel Chabad organisation food program distribution in Israel for the poor and disadvantaged".[9] Full figures for all 58 charities are in Chabad Lubavitch charities in the UK.
Controversies
Regulatory action
On 31 July 2017 the Charity Commission opened a statutory inquiry into Chabad Lubavitch UK after it failed to file its accounts on time for several consecutive years.[14][15] The inquiry's report, published on 2 May 2019, found "no evidence of fraud or misappropriation of charity assets". It found that branches were often late sending financial information to head office, and that the trustees had "repeatedly failed to comply with their legal obligations to file accurate accounting information". The Commission concluded that there had been mismanagement in the charity's administration. About £26.8 million of income for 2015 to 2017 was then accounted for, and the inquiry closed on 18 March 2019.[15]
In January 2025 the Commission issued an Official Warning to Chabad Lubavitch Centres North East London and Essex Limited (charity number 1123001). The charity had run a fundraising page in October 2023 for a soldier of the Israel Defense Forces stationed in northern Israel. The page raised around £2,280, of which £937 went directly to the soldier, and the rest was spent on non-lethal military equipment sent to him. The Commission found this was outside the charity's purposes and amounted to "misconduct and/or mismanagement" and a breach of trust. It had received over 180 complaints.[16][10] See also Chabad and Israeli politics.
Leeds Menorah School was judged Inadequate by Ofsted in January 2019 and Requires Improvement in July 2022; in July 2024 it was judged Good in all areas.[17][18] Lubavitch Senior Boys School was judged Inadequate in January 2022 and has since closed.[19] In November 2021 the Jewish Chronicle reported that the Office of the Schools Adjudicator had told the Lubavitch girls' primary school to change its admissions form.[20] Details are in Chabad Lubavitch schools in the UK.
Criminal case involving Chabad UK
In July 2019 Edward Cohen, who administered the charity Chabad UK, was jailed for almost ten years. In June 2019 he had been found guilty in his absence of money laundering, theft and supplying false information to the Charity Commission, and in April 2019 of housing benefit fraud. According to The Guardian, more than £10.3 million was processed between March 2012 and September 2014 through nine companies of the Chabad UK group, seven of them registered charities. The paper added that "Chabad UK is entirely separate from Chabad Lubavitch UK and is not part of the official Chabad movement."[21] Chabad UK (1118547) was removed from the register on 30 August 2023.[22]
Allegations
- Main article: Chabad abuse cases
Allegations of abuse and related cases involving Chabad institutions are covered in Chabad abuse cases and in the controversies section of Chabad-Lubavitch centres in London.
Charities
- Main article: Chabad Lubavitch charities in the UK
The charities page lists 58 Chabad-Lubavitch charities registered in England and Wales, 56 of which are currently registered, and the three Scottish charities. For each it gives the latest income, activities and objects from the Charity Commission and the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.
Companies
- Main article: Chabad Lubavitch companies in the UK
The companies page lists active companies, the 21 charitable incorporated organisations (CIOs), and dissolved companies, using Companies House and Charity Commission records.
Centres
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch centres in London
- Main article: Chabad Lubavitch centres in the UK outside London
Chabad-Lubavitch centres in London lists 58 centres and institutions in London and Greater London. Three appear there under other titles: Chabad of Battersea - on the South Bank (Chabad of Battersea), Chabad of West London (Ealing) and Chabad Lubavitch UK Hdqts (107–115 Stamford Hill). Centres elsewhere in England, in the South, Midlands and North, are listed in Chabad Lubavitch centres in the UK outside London.
Chabad on Campus
- Main article: Chabad on Campus UK
Chabad on Campus has 17 branches serving university students, listed in Chabad on Campus UK. They are part of Chabad on Campus International Inc.
Scotland
- Main article: Chabad Lubavitch of Scotland
In Scotland, Chabad-Lubavitch works through Lubavitch of Scotland in Giffnock, Chabad of Edinburgh and Shul in the Park (Scotland).{ro('SC031458')}{ro('SC045668')}{ro('SC046529')}
Schools
- Main article: Chabad Lubavitch schools in the UK
The schools page lists 18 schools from the Department for Education register, seven of them open, in London, Manchester and Leeds, with their inspection history.
Data table
A sortable table of branches, schools, synagogues, companies and charities is at Chabad-Lubavitch UK - branches, schools, synagogues, companies and charities.
Northern Ireland
No Chabad centre or resident Chabad emissary in Northern Ireland is listed by Chabad-Lubavitch's world headquarters, whose website mentions Belfast only in a 2008 news item.[23] No company with "Chabad" or "Lubavitch" in its name is registered in Northern Ireland at Companies House,[24][25] and the register of the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland lists no Chabad or Lubavitch charity; its only entry for "Jewish" is the Belfast Jewish Community.[26][27]
Menachem Brackman in Belfast
Rabbi Menachem Brackman, from the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, was rabbi of the Belfast Hebrew Congregation (the Belfast Jewish Community). The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported in March 2008 that Brackman, 26, and his wife Ruth, 22, had moved to Belfast five and a half weeks earlier to take over the position vacated by Rabbi Avraham Citron, and that "Part of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, the young couple is beginning a six-month trial as a team in Belfast, before deciding whether or not they would like to be official Chabad shluchim (emissaries)". It put the congregation at 108 members and the number of Jews in Northern Ireland at an estimated 200 to 300.[28]
Sources differ on the length of his tenure. JCR-UK lists him as minister of the congregation from 2008 to 2012, followed by Rabbi David Singer from 2013 to 2018.[29] The Jewish Chronicle reported in March 2013 that Singer had replaced Brackman, "who served the Belfast community for five years. He left in January and now lives in Edgware, north London."[30]
2008 visit by Chabad rabbis
In July 2008 the Irish News reported that two rabbis from New York, Pinny Raitman and Baruch Davidson of the Lubavitch Summer Peace Corps, had come to Belfast "to help revitalise the north's Jewish community", tracing and visiting unaffiliated Jews, before travelling on to other places in Ireland and to Spain. Brackman welcomed them and told the paper: "There is only one synagogue in Northern Ireland and I am the only rabbi but there are Jewish people throughout the north."[31]
In 2022 the Jewish News reported claims, repeated by UK government ministers, that the Belfast community "faces a struggle to continue".[32]
Ireland
Chabad Lubavitch of Ireland, 89 Rathmines Road Upper, Dublin 6, D06 CX89, Ireland.[33][34]
See also
- Chabad-Lubavitch movement
- Chabad Lubavitch UK
- Chabad Lubavitch in Greater Manchester
- Lubavitch House
- Chabad-Lubavitch UK - branches, schools, synagogues, companies and charities
- Chabad abuse cases
- Chabad and Israeli politics
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Charity Commission for England and Wales, "CHABAD LUBAVITCH UK, registered charity number 227638", Register of Charities, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, "Friends Of Lubavitch Scotland, SC031458", Scottish Charity Register, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Menachem Posner, "Rabbi Nachman Sudak, OBE, A Leader of British Jewry, 78", Chabad.org, 15 June 2014, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ "Rabbi Nachman Sudak, head of Chabad U.K., dies", Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 16 June 2014, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Chabad Lubavitch UK, "Chabad Lubavitch UK – Jewish Education | Outreach | Social Welfare" (site footer: "Charity Number 227638 – Trustee Corporation: Lubavitch (UK) Ltd."), accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Companies House, "CHABAD LUBAVITCH UK TRUSTEES LIMITED, company number 13543664", accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Companies House, "LUBAVITCH (UK) LIMITED, company number 02932344", accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Charity Commission for England and Wales, "Chabad Belgravia, registered charity number 1146332", Register of Charities, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Charity Commission for England and Wales, "COLEL CHABAD, registered charity number 327485", Register of Charities, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Charity Commission for England and Wales, "CHABAD LUBAVITCH CENTRES NORTH EAST LONDON AND ESSEX LIMITED, registered charity number 1123001", Register of Charities, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Charity Commission for England and Wales, "BEIS MENACHEM CHABAD LUBAVITCH, registered charity number 1046309", Register of Charities, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Charity Commission for England and Wales, "TZIVOS HASHEM UK, registered charity number 1163714", Register of Charities, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Charity Commission for England and Wales, "VISTA EDUCATION AND TRAINING LIMITED, registered charity number 1115840", Register of Charities, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Charity Commission for England and Wales, "New charity investigation: Chabad Lubavitch UK", GOV.UK, 7 September 2017 (page since withdrawn), accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Charity Commission for England and Wales, "Chabad Lubavitch UK" (statutory inquiry report), GOV.UK, 2 May 2019, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Charity Commission for England and Wales, "Charity issued with Official Warning over support for foreign military", GOV.UK, 9 January 2025, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Ofsted, "Leeds Menorah School", Find an Inspection Report, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Ofsted, "Inspection of Leeds Menorah School", inspection 9–11 July 2024, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Ofsted, "Lubavitch Senior Boys School – Closed", Find an Inspection Report, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Simon Rocker, "Lubavitch school told to change entry form", The Jewish Chronicle, 22 November 2021, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Aamna Mohdin, "Man jailed for laundering more than £10m through Jewish charity", The Guardian, 5 July 2019, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Charity Commission for England and Wales, "CHABAD UK, registered charity number 1118547", Register of Charities, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Search results for "Belfast", Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters (lubavitch.com), accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Companies House search for "chabad", Companies House, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Companies House search for "lubavitch", Companies House, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Charity search (searches for "Chabad", "Lubavitch" and "Jewish"), Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ "Belfast Jewish Community", charity no. 100486, Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Sharon Udasin, "In Northern Ireland, Neither Catholic Nor Protestant", Jewish Telegraphic Agency (New York Jewish Week), 26 March 2008.
- ↑ "Belfast Jewish Community", JCR-UK (JewishGen and the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain), accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Joe Cohen, "Belfast injection", The Jewish Chronicle, 25 March 2013.
- ↑ Brendan Breen, "New York rabbis begin Jewish mission in north", Irish News, reproduced by CrownHeights.info, 16 July 2008.
- ↑ Lee Harpin, "Chabad opening new centre in Dublin to cater for growing Irish-Jewish community", Jewish News, 4 July 2022.
- ↑ Companies Registration Office, "Chabad-Lubavitch of Ireland Company Limited by Guarantee, company number 694706", CRO open data (companies register), accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ "About Us" (registered office and Registered Charity Number 20206274), Chabad Ireland, accessed 25 October 2026.