Friends of Nachalas Bnei Shimon
Potash family trust funding a college whose namesake institution is in the settlement of Beitar Illit
| Friends of Nachalas Bnei Shimon
| |
|---|---|
| Logo | 
|
| Type | Other |
| Founded | 1992-03-09 (registered) |
| Registration ID | Registered charity 1009564 |
| Headquarters | London N16 |
| Area served | Israel |
| Key people | David Potash (chair) |
Friends of Nachalas Bnei Shimon is a UK registered charity (no. 1009564) that supports the Nachlas Bnei Shimon yeshiva in the illegal Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit in the occupied West Bank. One of the trustees of the charity is the head of the yeshiva, Rabbi David Potash. He himself resides in Beitar Illit.[1] [2] [3]
History
The organisation was registered as a charity with the UK Charity Commission on 9 March 1992.[1]
Objects and activities
The charity's registered objects read: "TO MAINTAIN SUPPORT AND FURTHER SUCH OF THE PURPOSES AND ACTIVITIES OF THE COLLEGE AS ARE CHARITABLE ACCORDING TO ENGLISH LAW"[4]
The register describes its activities as: "Furtherance of religious education and research."[4]
Register classifications: Education/training, Religious Activities.[4]
Areas of operation recorded on the register: Israel.[4]
Finances and funding
Between 2010 and 2014 the charity spent £266,310.[5]
Latest figures (Charity Commission register)
| Financial year end | Income | Expenditure |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-04-05 | £203,144 | £177,556 |
| 2022-04-05 | £102,244 | £135,143 |
| 2023-04-05 | £189,674 | £124,215 |
| 2024-04-05 | £147,377 | £191,034 |
| 2025-04-05 | £194,398 | £172,432 |
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 05/04/2014[6]
- Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2015[7]
- Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2016[8]
- Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2017[9]
- Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2018[10]
People
Board of Directors circa August 2015
Philip Potash | Rabbi David Potash | Myrna Potash
Current trustees (Charity Commission register, October 2026)
Current trustees, with other charities on which the same register trustee ID appears:[4]
| Trustee | Appointed | Chair | Other trusteeships |
|---|---|---|---|
| David Potash | not recorded | Yes | — |
| Philip Sidney Potash Bsc | not recorded | — |
Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)
| Capture date | Trustees listed | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-01-17 | David Potash (chair); Philip Potash Bsc | [11] |
Funding in Israel
- FY2025 student grants £162,685 (2024: £180,160) and college expenses £9,200, paid "to the college for those studying and general running expenses"; the college's location is not stated (PDF p.4, 7).[12]
Israeli partners
"The college, Nachalas Bnei Shimon" (PDF p.4).[12] An institution of that name, headed by Rabbi Mordechai Potash and administered by Rabbi David Potash, is listed at 9 Mavo Margalit Street, Beitar Illit (Israeli company number 580758605).[13]
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.
| Finding | Confidence |
|---|---|
| Nachlat Bnei Shimon is listed at 9 Mavo Margalit Street, Beitar Illit – a settlement in the occupied West Bank. The link to the UK charity rests on the shared name and on David Potash appearing both as a UK trustee and as the institution's administrator; the accounts do not name the place.[13][12] | Medium |
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;[14] 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.[15][16][17][18] 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.[19]
- Trustee names differ. The register lists Rabbi David Potash and Philip Sidney Potash; the accounts list E Potash and D Potash and are signed by E Potash (PDF p.3).[4][12]
- Location not disclosed. The accounts do not say where the college is. A Torah institutions directory lists an institution called Nachlat Bnei Shimon at 9 Mavo Margalit Street, Beitar Illit, a settlement in the occupied West Bank, with Rabbi Mordechai Potash as head and Rabbi David Potash as administrator (PDF p.4).[12][13]
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).[20] No entry was found on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register (API name searches returned zero results).[21]
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.[22]
Grants recorded by 360Giving
No grants received or made by this charity are recorded in 360Giving data.[23]
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.[24]
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.[25]
US counterparts (ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer)
| Organisation | EIN | Latest filing year | Revenue (US$) | Expenses (US$) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yeshivas Nachlas Bnei Shimon[26] | 113515791 | 2023 | 537,653 | 501,800 |
These US organisations share the name or beneficiary of the UK charity; no financial flows between them and the UK charity were established.
Parliament
Hansard exact-phrase searches for "Nachalas Bnei Shimon", "Nachlas Bnei Shimon" returned 0 contributions in total.[27]
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 August 2015:
- Mr Ephraim Potash
- 155 Holmleigh Road
- London
- N16 5QA
- Phone: 0208 800 2248
- Email: epotash@virginmedia.com
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Charity Commission Website Framework. Accessed 7 July 2015.
- ↑ B'Tselem Website Settlements. Accessed 24 August 2015.
- ↑ Olam Hatorah Website Nachlat Bnei Shimon. Accessed 24 August 2015.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 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, charity_other_names), extract dated 14 October 2026.
- ↑ Charity Commission Website Charity overview. Accessed 24 August 2015.
- ↑ Friends of Nachalas Bnei Shimon accounts, year ended 2014-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
- ↑ Friends of Nachalas Bnei Shimon accounts, year ended 2015-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
- ↑ Friends of Nachalas Bnei Shimon accounts, year ended 2016-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
- ↑ Friends of Nachalas Bnei Shimon accounts, year ended 2017-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
- ↑ Friends of Nachalas Bnei Shimon accounts, year ended 2018-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Register entry 1009564, full print (capture of 20210117) UK Government Web Archive.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 Charity Commission, Friends of Nachalas Bnei Shimon (1009564): accounts and annual returns Register of Charities; latest accounts downloaded 15 October 2026 ("PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Torah Index, Nachlat Bnei Shimon torahindex.com (institutions directory), retrieved 15 October 2026 (head of institution Rabbi Mordechai Potash; administrator Rabbi David Potash; address 9 Mavo Margalit St., Beitar Illit 97707; company number 580758605).
- ↑ 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-13 charities, all retrieved successfully on 15 October 2026 and checked for a "Regulatory alerts" section; none was shown for any of them. The 22 registered charities showed "Charity reporting is up to date (on time)"; Hatzolas Chasanim Ltd, Trumfold Limited and The Naaman Trust showed "Removed charity".
- ↑ Charity Commission, Serious concerns over use of £22 million triggers investigation by charity regulator GOV.UK, 14 May 2025.
- ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator opens next phase of investigation into 105 charities connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 1 September 2025.
- ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator announces next charities to be investigated as part of inquiry connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 4 December 2025.
- ↑ 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).
- ↑ 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").
- ↑ Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Scottish Charity Register download OSCR, export dated 14 October 2026; keyword search of the 25 batch-13 charity names found no matching Scottish registration.
- ↑ Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, Register of charities search API CCNI, searched 15 October 2026 (keyword searches for each of the 25 batch-13 charity names returned zero results, except "J O Charitable", which returned only unrelated Northern Irish charities).
- ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Nachalas Bnei Shimon' The Gazette, searched 15 October 2026.
- ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-1009564 360Giving, queried 15 October 2026.
- ↑ Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK Sanctions List (CSV); Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets (ConList.csv). Batch-13 screening covered 285 name strings: the 25 charity names, current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages, Companies House officers of the six charitable companies (including the removed Hatzolas Chasanim Ltd and Trumfold Limited), related companies named in the accounts (Cromwell Corporate Protector Limited, Salmino Limited, Bullion Properties Limited, Crewpride Limited, Wilkincroft Ltd and others), and trustees, examiners, donors and grant recipients named in the accounts and fetched partner pages read for this batch; matching on surname plus forename tokens, reviewed manually. No forename-and-surname match for any person was found; the only token matches were generic words in organisation names ("Trust", "Limited", "Ltd", "Foundation") and surname-only coincidences (Weiss, Friedman, Kish, Silver, James, Seal, Potash); lists downloaded October 2026.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Yeshivas Nachlas Bnei Shimon – Nonprofit Explorer ProPublica, viewed 15 October 2026.
- ↑ UK Parliament, Hansard search API: contributions matching the exact phrase "Nachalas Bnei Shimon" Hansard, queried 15 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).