Friends of Be'er Miriam

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North London trust giving about £50,000 a year to unnamed Orthodox Jewish institutions, whose 2024 accounts contradict themselves on who the trustees are and carry an examiner's report for a different charity

Friends of Be'er Miriam

Type Other
Founded 1990-08-01 (registered)
Registration ID Registered charity 1000007
Headquarters London N15
Area served Israel
Key people Yehudah Yonah Silberstein (chair)


Friends of Be'er Miriam was established by a declaration of trust of 21 December 1989 and registered on 1 August 1990; its office is in London N15 and its accountants, Rothfeld & Co, are in London N16.[1][2] The register describes its activities as "Grants to educational institutions" and gives Israel as its area of operation.[1][3] The register lists one trustee, Yehudah Yonah Silberstein (chair from 1 November 2024).[3] The accounts for 2024 name Y Silberstein on the board of trustees but also say "The Trustees in office throughout the year were Mr M C Elzas, Mr D Lobenstein & Mrs B Dunner" – the three trustees on the archived 2021 register entry (PDF p.4–5).[2][4] Donations were £52,335 (2023: £86,151) and grants £53,715; the report gives the 2023 grants as £115,854 and the statement of financial activities as £115,404, which "went to organisations and institutions involved in orthodox Jewish religious education, social welfare etc"; no recipient is named (PDF p.6).[2] Funds fell from £1,496 to £189 (PDF p.9).[2]

Objects and activities

The charity's registered objects read: "THE BENEFIT AND PROMOTION OF THE ORTHODOX JEWISH RELIGION AND ORTHODOX JEWISH RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN ANY PART OF THE WORLD IN SUCH SHARES AND IN SUCH MANNER AS THE TRUSTEES IN THEIR ABSOLUTE DISCRETION MAY FROM TIME TO TIME DETERMINE."[3]

The register describes its activities as: "Grants to educational institutions"[3]

Register classifications: General Charitable Purposes.[3]

Areas of operation recorded on the register: Israel.[3]

Trustees

Current trustees, with other charities on which the same register trustee ID appears:[3]

Trustees of Friends of Be'er Miriam (register, October 2026)
Trustee Appointed Chair Other trusteeships
Yehudah Yonah Silberstein 2024-11-01 Yes —

Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)

Trustees shown in archived register pages
Capture date Trustees listed Source
2011-09-28 Moshe Chaim Elzas; Beatrice Dunner; David Lobenstein [5]
2021-07-04 Beatrice Dunner; David Lobenstein (chair); Moshe Chaim Elzas – also trustee of British Friends of Kupat Ha'ir [6]

On the archived 2021 register entry, Moshe Chaim Elzas was also a trustee of British Friends of Kupat Ha'ir.[4]

Finances

Income and expenditure, five most recent reported years
Financial year end Income Expenditure
2020-12-31 £93,123 £93,826
2021-12-31 £145,562 £146,320
2022-12-31 £171,422 £141,650
2023-12-31 £86,151 £115,854
2024-12-31 £52,335 £53,715

Source: register annual-return history.[3]

Archived accounts

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

  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2006[7]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2007[8]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2008[9]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2009[10]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2012[11]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2013[12]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2014[13]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2015[14]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2016[15]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2017[16]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2018[17]

Funding in Israel

  • No spending in Israel is identified; the accounts do not name the recipients of the £53,715 in grants or mention Israel (PDF p.6).[2]

Israeli partners

No Israeli partner is named. The register gives Israel as the area of operation.[3]

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 place in Israel 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;[18] 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.[19][20][21][22] 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.[23]
  • Contradictory trustee list. The report names Y Silberstein as trustee and approved the accounts on 20 October 2025, but says the trustees in office throughout the year were M C Elzas, D Lobenstein and B Dunner (PDF p.4–5, 8).[2]
  • Examiner's report for another charity. The independent examiner's report says "We report on the financial statements of Finegrant Limited" (PDF p.8).[2]
  • Other errors. The balance sheet is headed "At 31 March 2024" although the year ends on 31 December; note 3 repeats the prior year's income figure of £86,084; and the 2023 balance-sheet column (£146) does not match the funds brought forward (£1,496) (PDF p.9–10, 12).[2]
  • Property on the register. The register says the charity owns or leases land or property, but the accounts show none (PDF p.10).[3][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).[24] No entry was found on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register (API name searches returned zero results).[25]

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.[26]

Grants recorded by 360Giving

No grants received or made by this charity are recorded in 360Giving data.[27]

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.[28]

Land and property

The register records that the charity owns and/or leases land or property.[3] No title registers were purchased; the HM Land Registry interactive search blocked automated access.[29] Candidate titles and addresses (CCOD dataset and register/accounts data):[30]

  • No property in the accounts, although the register says the charity owns or leases land or property – Accounts (PDF p.10) (source: [2])

Parliament

Hansard exact-phrase searches for "Friends of Be'er Miriam", "Beer Miriam" returned 0 contributions in total.[31]

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 (on time)" and "Other regulators: No information available".[6]

External links

  • No current official website.

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Charity Commission, Friends of Be'er Miriam (1000007): full print Register of Charities, retrieved 16 October 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 Charity Commission, Friends of Be'er Miriam (1000007): accounts and annual returns Register of Charities; latest accounts downloaded 16 October 2026 ("PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 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.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Charity Commission, Friends of Be'er Miriam (1000007): full print UK Government Web Archive, capture of 04/07/2021.
  5. ↑ Register entry 1000007, contact and trustees (capture of 20110928) UK Government Web Archive.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Register entry 1000007, full print (capture of 20210704) UK Government Web Archive.
  7. ↑ Friends of Be'er Miriam accounts, year ended 2006-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20110928).
  8. ↑ Friends of Be'er Miriam accounts, year ended 2007-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20110928).
  9. ↑ Friends of Be'er Miriam accounts, year ended 2008-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20110928).
  10. ↑ Friends of Be'er Miriam accounts, year ended 2009-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20110928).
  11. ↑ Friends of Be'er Miriam accounts, year ended 2012-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20180804).
  12. ↑ Friends of Be'er Miriam accounts, year ended 2013-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20180804).
  13. ↑ Friends of Be'er Miriam accounts, year ended 2014-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20180804).
  14. ↑ Friends of Be'er Miriam accounts, year ended 2015-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20180804).
  15. ↑ Friends of Be'er Miriam accounts, year ended 2016-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20180804).
  16. ↑ Friends of Be'er Miriam accounts, year ended 2017-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20190726).
  17. ↑ Friends of Be'er Miriam accounts, year ended 2018-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  18. ↑ 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-22 charities, all retrieved on 16 October 2026 and checked for a "Regulatory alerts" notice; none was shown.
  19. ↑ Charity Commission, Serious concerns over use of £22 million triggers investigation by charity regulator GOV.UK, 14 May 2025.
  20. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator opens next phase of investigation into 105 charities connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 1 September 2025.
  21. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator announces next charities to be investigated as part of inquiry connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 4 December 2025.
  22. ↑ 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).
  23. ↑ 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").
  24. ↑ Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Scottish Charity Register download OSCR, export dated 14 October 2026; keyword search of the 25 batch-22 charity names found no matching Scottish registration.
  25. ↑ Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, Register of charities search API CCNI, searched 16 October 2026 (keyword searches for each of the 25 batch-22 charity names returned zero results).
  26. ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Be'er Miriam' The Gazette, searched 16 October 2026.
  27. ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-1000007 360Giving, queried 16 October 2026.
  28. ↑ Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK Sanctions List (CSV); Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets (ConList.csv). Batch-22 screening covered 196 name strings: the 25 charity names, current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages, trustees, officers and staff named in the accounts and websites read for this batch, and the Companies House officers of the charitable companies; the only hits were generic words in charity names (such as "Charitable Foundation", "Trust", "Fund" and "Association") matching listed entities, which were rejected; no person matched. Screened 16 October 2026.
  29. ↑ 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.
  30. ↑ HM Land Registry, UK companies that own property in England and Wales (CCOD) and Overseas companies that own property in England and Wales (OCOD) full extracts, October 2026 release, matched on the company numbers of the charitable companies in this batch and searched for distinctive charity-name keywords; no title registers were purchased.
  31. ↑ UK Parliament, Hansard search API: contributions matching the exact phrase "Be'er Miriam" Hansard, queried 16 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).
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