Friends of Ohel Torah Trust

From Powerbase
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Golders Green trust granting £100,000 a year to the Ohel Torah Talmudical College in Israel while holding £372,711 in cash

Friends of Ohel Torah Trust

Type Other
Founded 1988-08-03 (registered)
Registration ID Registered charity 327912
Headquarters London NW11
Area served Israel
Key people Jonathan Chody (chair)


The Friends of Ohel Torah Trust was registered on 3 August 1988 under a declaration of trust that the register dates 15 August 1988; its only register area is Israel.[1] Its trustees are Jonathan Chody (chair) and Benjamin Zev Goldberg, both appointed on 14 March 2022, with a principal address in London NW11 (OCR, PDF p.1).[1][2] Its object is Orthodox Jewish education and religion, carried out by "making grants to the Ohel Torah Talmudical College in Israel".[1] The 2025 receipts-and-payments accounts show donations of £127,121 (2024: £74,572) and grants of £100,000 (2024: £100,000), with cash rising from £345,590 to £372,711 (OCR, PDF p.3, 7–8).[2]

Objects and activities

The charity's registered objects read: "TO ADVANCE EDUCATION IN AND THE RELIGION OF THE ORTHODOX JEWISH FAITH."[1]

The register describes its activities as: "The support of the advancement of orthodox Jewish education and the orthodox Jewish faith by making grants to the Ohel Torah Talmudical College in Israel."[1]

Register classifications: Education/training, Religious Activities.[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 Ohel Torah Trust (register, October 2026)
Trustee Appointed Chair Other trusteeships
Benjamin Zev Goldberg 2022-03-14 Small Money Matters (1187041)
Jonathan Chody 2022-03-14 Yes Golders Green Gemach (283610); Maaseh Chiya (1118522); The Bouverie Trust (275853); The Jecta Trust (1005151)

Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)

Trustees shown in archived register pages
Capture date Trustees listed Source
2011-01-19 P Chody; Morton Creeger; Yitzhak Bialistotzki [3]
2012-09-06 P Chody; Morton Creeger; Yitzhak Bialistotzki [4]
2018-01-05 P Chody; Yitzhak Bialistotzki [5]
2021-01-05 Yitzhak Bialistotzki; P Chody – also trustee of The Rabbi Aryeh and Miriam Carmell Memorial Fund, The Leads Trust, The Bouverie Trust, Cherry Tree Foundation, The Friends of Kol Yerushalayim Kollel Trust [6]

Finances

Income and expenditure, five most recent reported years
Financial year end Income Expenditure
2021-12-31 £38,650 £0
2022-12-31 £143,200 £200,000
2023-12-31 £115,521 £100,000
2024-12-31 £74,572 £100,000
2025-12-31 £127,121 £100,000

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 31/12/2005[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 31/12/2010[11]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2014[12]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2015[13]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2016[14]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2017[15]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2018[16]

Funding in Israel

  • FY2025 grants £100,000 (2024: £100,000); the receipts-and-payments account does not name the recipient, but the report and the register describe the charity's grants as going to the Ohel Torah Talmudical College in Israel (OCR, PDF p.3, 7).[2][1]

Israeli partners

The Ohel Torah Talmudical College in Israel; the accounts give no address, and no address for it was established (OCR, PDF p.3).[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 in Israel is named for the college (OCR, PDF p.3).[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;[17] 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.[18][19][20][21] 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.[22]
  • Large balance despite a "minimal" reserves policy. The report says the charity keeps "a minimal amount in its bank account" and that funds "are also held for future distribution to relevant charities", yet year-end cash of £372,711 equalled more than three years of grants at the current rate (OCR, PDF p.4–5, 7–8).[2]
  • No examiner shown. No independent examiner's report or examiner's name appears in the filed documents read for this profile (OCR, PDF p.1–8).[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).[23] No entry was found on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register (API name searches returned zero results).[24]

The Gazette

Searches of The Gazette for the charity's name returned Companies House filing lists and notices about an "Ohel Torah" at 99 George Street, Salford, listed in a 1971 notice, none of which was established to concern this charity; no insolvency, winding-up or strike-off notice naming the charity was found.[25]

Grants recorded by 360Giving

No grants received or made by this charity are recorded in 360Giving data.[26]

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.[27]

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.[28]

Parliament

Hansard exact-phrase searches for "Friends of Ohel Torah", "Ohel Torah" returned 0 contributions in total.[29]

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".[6]

External links

  • No current official website.

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 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.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Charity Commission, Friends of Ohel Torah Trust (327912): accounts and annual returns Register of Charities; latest accounts downloaded 16 October 2026 ("PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
  3. ↑ Register entry 327912, contact and trustees (capture of 20110119) UK Government Web Archive.
  4. ↑ Register entry 327912, contact and trustees (capture of 20120906) UK Government Web Archive.
  5. ↑ Register entry 327912, contact and trustees (capture of 20180105) UK Government Web Archive.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Register entry 327912, full print (capture of 20210105) UK Government Web Archive.
  7. ↑ Friends of Ohel Torah Trust accounts, year ended 2005-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20110911).
  8. ↑ Friends of Ohel Torah Trust accounts, year ended 2007-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20110911).
  9. ↑ Friends of Ohel Torah Trust accounts, year ended 2008-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20110911).
  10. ↑ Friends of Ohel Torah Trust accounts, year ended 2009-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20110911).
  11. ↑ Friends of Ohel Torah Trust accounts, year ended 2010-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20120906).
  12. ↑ Friends of Ohel Torah Trust accounts, year ended 2014-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200103).
  13. ↑ Friends of Ohel Torah Trust accounts, year ended 2015-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200103).
  14. ↑ Friends of Ohel Torah Trust accounts, year ended 2016-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200103).
  15. ↑ Friends of Ohel Torah Trust accounts, year ended 2017-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200103).
  16. ↑ Friends of Ohel Torah Trust accounts, year ended 2018-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200103).
  17. ↑ 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-16 charities, all retrieved successfully on 16 October 2026 and checked for a "Regulatory alerts" section; none was shown for any of them. Nineteen registered charities showed "Charity reporting is up to date (on time)"; Halacha Lemoshe Trust showed "up to date (8 days late)", The Josh Charitable Trust "up to date (140 days late)" and The Pauline Aviges-Graham Foundation "up to date (34 days late)"; Songbrook Limited, Shekel Limited and Refeeah Trust showed "Removed charity".
  18. ↑ Charity Commission, Serious concerns over use of £22 million triggers investigation by charity regulator GOV.UK, 14 May 2025.
  19. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator opens next phase of investigation into 105 charities connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 1 September 2025.
  20. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator announces next charities to be investigated as part of inquiry connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 4 December 2025.
  21. ↑ 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).
  22. ↑ 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").
  23. ↑ Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Scottish Charity Register download OSCR, export dated 14 October 2026; keyword search of the 25 batch-16 charity names found no matching Scottish registration.
  24. ↑ Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, Register of charities search API CCNI, searched 16 October 2026 (keyword searches for each of the 25 batch-16 charity names returned no matching charity).
  25. ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Ohel Torah' The Gazette, searched 16 October 2026.
  26. ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-327912 360Giving, queried 16 October 2026.
  27. ↑ Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK Sanctions List (CSV); Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets (ConList.csv). Batch-16 screening covered 247 name strings: the 25 charity names, current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages, Companies House officers of the five charitable companies, and trustees, examiners and other people named in the accounts and sources read for this batch; matching on surname plus forename tokens, reviewed manually. No forename-and-surname match for any person was found; token matches were surname-only coincidences (for example Miller, Shah, Weinberg and Rapoport) or the generic words "UK", "Ltd" and "Company Limited"; lists downloaded October 2026.
  28. ↑ 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.
  29. ↑ UK Parliament, Hansard search API: contributions matching the exact phrase "Ohel Torah" Hansard, queried 16 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).
Retrieved from "https://powerbase.info/index.php?title=Friends_of_Ohel_Torah_Trust&oldid=282024"