Friends of Gur Foundation Israel

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Stamford Hill CIO whose grants all go to the Global Centre for Gur

Friends of Gur Foundation Israel

Logo Gur great beit midrash Jerusalem 2020.jpg
The building described on Wikimedia Commons as the world centre (Merkaz HaOlami) and great beit midrash of the Gur Hasidim, Jerusalem (2020). The CIO's grants in the year to April 2025, £462,000, all went to "Global Centre for Gur - Hamerkaz Haolam"
Type CIO
Founded 2016-07-06 (registered)
Registration ID Registered charity 1168057
Headquarters 165 Kyverdale Road, London, N16 6PS
Area served Israel
Key people Raphael Aaron Rechnitzer (chair)


Friends of Gur Foundation Israel is a charitable incorporated organisation registered on 6 July 2016; Israel is its only register area.[1] The accounts for the year to 5 April 2025, independently examined by Sugarwhite Meyer, give its principal address as 165 Kyverdale Road, London N16 6PS, and its trustees as R A Rechnitzer, F Goldberg, I Piller and P Taub. Its object is to support "the Gur Foundation in Israel". Income was £516,435 and grants £462,000 (2024: £386,500); funds were £7,033 (2024: –£34,712) (PDF p.3, 7).[2]

Objects and activities

The charity's registered objects read: "THE OBJECT[S] OF THE CIO AREI. THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE JEWISH RELIGION THROUGH FACILITATION OR ASSISTING IN THE PROVISION OF FACILITIES ACTIVITIES OR SERVICES AND IN PARTICULAR THROUGH SUPPORTING THE GUR FOUNDATION IN ISRAEL.II. TO PROMOTE ANY OTHER EXCLUSIVELY CHARITABLE OBJECTS AND PURPOSES AS THE TRUSTEES SEE FIT, PROVIDED THAT THEY ARE REGARDED AS CHARITABLE BY THE LAW OF ENGLAND AND WALES."[1]

The register describes its activities as: "To assist and support jewish religious education and poverty."[1]

Register classifications: General Charitable Purposes, The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty, Religious Activities, Other Charitable Purposes.[1]

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

Trustees

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

Trustees of Friends of Gur Foundation Israel (register, October 2026)
Trustee Appointed Chair Other trusteeships
Feige Goldberg 2016-07-26 —
Raphael Aaron Rechnitzer 2016-07-28 Yes —
Paltiel Taub 2016-07-28 —
Israel Piller 2016-11-28 H P Charitable Trust (278006)

Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)

Trustees shown in archived register pages
Capture date Trustees listed Source
2021-01-16 Feige Goldberg (from 26 July 2016); Paltiel Taub (from 28 July 2016); Raphael Aaron Rechnitzer (chair) (from 28 July 2016); Israel Piller (from 28 November 2016) [3]

Finances

Income and expenditure, five most recent reported years
Financial year end Income Expenditure
2021-04-05 £1,278,089 £1,187,763
2022-04-05 £746,053 £812,622
2023-04-05 £913,444 £932,361
2024-04-05 £357,124 £405,767
2025-04-05 £516,435 £474,690

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 05/04/2017[4]
  • Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2018[5]
  • Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2019[6]

Funding in Israel

  • Year to April 2025: £462,000, all to "Global Centre for Gur - Hamerkaz Haolam" (PDF p.12).[2]

Israeli partners

Global Centre for Gur – Hamerkaz Haolam (location not stated).[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 place is named for the recipient.[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;[7] 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.[8][9][10][11] 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.[12]
  • Payment to a trustee's relative. A close relative of a trustee received wages of £8,320 (2024: £8,480) (PDF p.16).[2]
  • Out-of-date going-concern note. The going-concern note refers to a "deficiency in net assets", although net assets were positive at April 2025 (PDF p.11).[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, downloaded 15 October 2026 and searched by name).[13] No entry was found on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register (API name searches returned zero results).[14]

The Gazette

Searches of The Gazette notice feeds (all notices, insolvency and company) for the charity's name returned no notices.[15]

Grants recorded by 360Giving

No grants received or made by this charity are recorded in 360Giving data.[16]

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.[17]

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.[18]

Parliament

Hansard searches for 'Friends of Gur Foundation', 'Gur Foundation Israel' returned 0 contributions in total.[19]

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".[3]

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 Charity Commission, Friends of Gur Foundation Israel (1168057): accounts and annual returns Register of Charities; latest accounts downloaded 15 October 2026 ("PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Register entry 1168057, full print (capture of 20210116) UK Government Web Archive.
  4. ↑ Friends of Gur Foundation Israel accounts, year ended 2017-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200107).
  5. ↑ Friends of Gur Foundation Israel accounts, year ended 2018-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200107).
  6. ↑ Friends of Gur Foundation Israel accounts, year ended 2019-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200703).
  7. ↑ 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).
  8. ↑ Charity Commission, Serious concerns over use of £22 million triggers investigation by charity regulator GOV.UK, 14 May 2025.
  9. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator opens next phase of investigation into 105 charities connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 1 September 2025.
  10. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator announces next charities to be investigated as part of inquiry connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 4 December 2025.
  11. ↑ 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.
  12. ↑ 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").
  13. ↑ 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).
  14. ↑ 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).
  15. ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Gur Foundation' The Gazette, searched 15 October 2026.
  16. ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-1168057 360Giving, queried 15 October 2026.
  17. ↑ 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.
  18. ↑ 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.
  19. ↑ UK Parliament, Hansard search API: contributions matching 'Gur Foundation' Hansard, queried 15 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints).
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