Friends of Beis Yisroel Trust

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North London trust giving all its grants to the Beis Yisroel yeshiva in Jerusalem

Friends of Beis Yisroel Trust

Type Trust
Founded 1990-05-10 (registered)
Registration ID Registered charity 803129
Headquarters Cohen Arnold, New Burlington House, 1075 Finchley Road, London, NW11 0PU
Area served Throughout England And Wales, Israel
Key people Raphael Wechsler (chair)

Friends of Beis Yisroel Trust is a UK registered charity (no. 803129). According to its page at the UK Charity Commission the charity provides assistance to the Beis Yisroel Yeshiva Talmudical College of Jerusalem. [1] The latter institution is in fact based in the illegal settlement of Neve Yaakov in occupied East Jerusalem.[2] [3]

History

The organisation became a registered charity in 1990.[1]

Objects and activities

The charity's registered objects read: "TRUST FOR GENERAL CHARIABLE PURPOSES INCLUDING THE RELIEF OF POVERTY AND THE ADVANCEMENT OF RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND IN PARTICULAR TO ASSIST IN THE BEIS YISROEL YESHIVA TALMUDICAL COLLEGE OF JERUSALEM."[4]

The register describes its activities as: "The objects of the charity are the advancement of religion and the relief of poverty and sickness and will remain unchange in future years."[4]

Register classifications: General Charitable Purposes, Education/training, The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty, Religious Activities.[4]

Areas of operation recorded on the register: Throughout England And Wales, Israel.[4]

Finances and Funding

Between 2009 and 2013 the charity spent £1,596,439.[5]

Latest figures (Charity Commission register)

Income and expenditure, five most recent reported years
Financial year end Income Expenditure
2020-12-31 £317,273 £329,125
2021-12-31 £232,332 £224,980
2022-12-31 £326,038 £324,974
2023-12-31 £805,260 £589,497
2024-12-31 £592,218 £612,294

Source: register annual-return history.[4]

Archived accounts

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

  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2014[6]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2015[7]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2016[8]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2017[9]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2018[10]

People

Board of Directors circa July 2015

S. Luftig | Rabbi Daniel Lehrfield | Howard Warshawsky

Current trustees (Charity Commission register, October 2026)

Current trustees, with other charities on which the same register trustee ID appears:[4]

Trustees of Friends of Beis Yisroel Trust (register, October 2026)
Trustee Appointed Chair Other trusteeships
Raphael Wechsler 2017-12-31 Yes —
Jacob Stephen Prager 2017-12-31 —
Maier Kesselman 2017-12-31 Strawberry Care Foundation Limited (1108022); The Elms Foundation (1096314); The Stroh Gestetner Foundation Ltd (1107210)

Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)

Trustees shown in archived register pages
Capture date Trustees listed Source
2021-01-08 Raphael Wechsler (chair) (from 31 December 2017); Maier Kesselman (from 31 December 2017) – also trustee of The Elms Foundation, Strawberry Care Foundation Limited, The Stroh Gestetner Foundation Ltd; Jacob Stephen Prager (from 31 December 2017) [11]

Funding in Israel

  • 2024: £610,000 to the Beis Yisroel Yeshiva Talmudical College of Jerusalem (2023: £585,000), all of the grants made (PDF p.6, 11).[12]

Israeli partners

Beis Yisroel Yeshiva Talmudical College of Jerusalem.[12]

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 college is described only as in Jerusalem; the district is not stated.[12] Not established – Jerusalem, district not stated

Support for the IDF: No IDF or military funding is stated.[12]

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;[13] 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.[14][15][16][17] 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.[18]

Other registers and records

Scotland and Northern Ireland

No entry was found on the Scottish Charity Register for this charity (full register download of 14 October 2026 searched by name).[19] No entry was found on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register (API name searches returned zero results).[20]

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; results were limited to Companies House filing lists.[21]

Grants recorded by 360Giving

No grants received or made by this charity are recorded in 360Giving data.[22]

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.[23]

Land and property

The register records that the charity does not own or lease land or property.[4] No title registers were purchased; the HM Land Registry interactive search blocked automated access.[24]

Parliament

Hansard searches for 'Friends of Beis Yisroel', 'Beis Yisroel Trust' returned 0 contributions in total.[25]

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".[11]

Contact

Address circa July 2015:

Michael Weissbraun
Michael Pasha & Co
220 The Vale
London
Nw11 8SR
Phone: 0208 209 9880

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Charity Commission Website Charity Framework. Accessed 6 July 2015.
  2. ↑ Only Simchas Website Bais Yisroel Yeshiva in Israel Opens the New Zman with LOTS of SIMCHAS!. Accessed 6 July 2015.
  3. ↑ B'Tselem Website Settlements. Accessed 6 July 2015.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 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.
  5. ↑ Charity Commission Website Charity Overview. Accessed 6 July 2015.
  6. ↑ Friends of Beis Yisroel Trust accounts, year ended 2014-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
  7. ↑ Friends of Beis Yisroel Trust accounts, year ended 2015-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
  8. ↑ Friends of Beis Yisroel Trust accounts, year ended 2016-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
  9. ↑ Friends of Beis Yisroel Trust accounts, year ended 2017-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
  10. ↑ Friends of Beis Yisroel Trust accounts, year ended 2018-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Register entry 803129, full print (capture of 20210108) UK Government Web Archive.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Charity Commission, Friends of Beis Yisroel Trust (803129): accounts and annual returns Register of Charities; latest accounts downloaded 14 October 2026 ("PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
  13. ↑ 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).
  14. ↑ Charity Commission, Serious concerns over use of £22 million triggers investigation by charity regulator GOV.UK, 14 May 2025.
  15. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator opens next phase of investigation into 105 charities connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 1 September 2025 (re-fetched 14 October 2026).
  16. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator announces next charities to be investigated as part of inquiry connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 4 December 2025.
  17. ↑ 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.
  18. ↑ 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").
  19. ↑ Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Scottish Charity Register download OSCR, CharityExport-14-Oct-2026.csv, downloaded 14 October 2026; keyword search of charity names for the batch-6 charities found no matching Scottish registration.
  20. ↑ Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, Register of charities search API CCNI, searched 14 October 2026 (keyword searches for each batch-6 charity name returned zero results).
  21. ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Beis Yisroel' The Gazette, searched 14 October 2026.
  22. ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-803129 360Giving, queried 14 October 2026.
  23. ↑ Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK Sanctions List (CSV); Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets (ConList.csv). Batch-6 screening covered 429 name strings: the 25 charity names, current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages and archived full-print register pages (UK Government Web Archive), Companies House officers of the charitable companies, and trustees, officers and related persons named in the accounts read for this batch (including archived accounts); matching on surname plus forename tokens, reviewed manually (all candidate hits were surname-only coincidences or generic word overlaps); lists downloaded October 2026.
  24. ↑ HM Land Registry, Search for land and property information GOV.UK – the service returned HTTP 403 (bot protection) to automated access on 14 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.
  25. ↑ UK Parliament, Hansard search API: contributions matching 'Beis Yisroel' Hansard, queried 14 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints).
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