Friends of Ohr Yechiel Trust

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Stamford Hill trust that exists to send funds to the Institute Ohr Yechiel College for Advanced Rabbinic and Talmudic Studies in Jerusalem, and gave £56,000 in 2024/25

Friends of Ohr Yechiel Trust

Type Other
Founded 1994-05-27 (registered)
Registration ID Registered charity 1038062
Headquarters London N16
Area served Israel
Key people Myer Rothfield (chair)


Friends of Ohr Yechiel Trust was established by a trust deed of 30 November 1992 and registered on 27 May 1994; its principal address is in London N16.[1][2] Its objects are "Advancing Orthodox Jewish religious education and in particular through assisting the Institute Ohr Yechiel College for Advanced Rabbinic and Talmudic Studies in Jerusalem", and "The Trust continued in its main object of sending funds to the Institute in Jerusalem".[2] The accounts for the year to 31 March 2025 name the trustees as M. Rothfeld, Y. Chersky and Rabbi M. Waltner; the register lists Myer Rothfield (chair), Yechiel Chersky and Rabbi Meir Waltner.[2][3] Donations received were £44,560 (2024: £47,629) and grants made £56,000 (2024: £39,000); the bank balance fell from £56,732 to £45,292.[2] The accounts were examined by Rachel Dym, described as "Accountant", of London N15 on 10 December 2025 and signed on behalf of the trustees by an unnamed "CHAIRMAN".[2]

Objects and activities

The charity's registered objects read: "TO PAY OR APPLY THE INCOME AND CAPITAL FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF ORTHODOX JEWISH RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND OF THE ORTHODOX JEWISH RELIGION GENERALLY."[3]

The register describes its activities as: "grants to individuals"[3]

Register classifications: Education/training.[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 Ohr Yechiel Trust (register, October 2026)
Trustee Appointed Chair Other trusteeships
Yechiel Chersky not recorded Bourneheights Limited (298359); Friends of Gaon Yaakov (326592)
Myer Rothfield not recorded Yes —
Meir Waltner not recorded —

Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)

Trustees shown in archived register pages
Capture date Trustees listed Source
2021-01-07 Myer Rothfield (chair); Yechiel Chersky – also trustee of Bourneheights Limited; Meir Waltner [4]

Yechiel Chersky is also a register trustee of Bourneheights Limited (298359) and Friends of Gaon Yaakov (326592).[3]

Finances

Income and expenditure, five most recent reported years
Financial year end Income Expenditure
2021-03-31 £24,233 £28,500
2022-03-31 £70,464 £60,710
2023-03-31 £43,732 £43,500
2024-03-31 £47,629 £39,000
2025-03-31 £44,560 £56,000

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 31/03/2015[5]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2016[6]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2017[7]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2018[8]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2019[9]

Funding in Israel

  • Year to 31 March 2025: grants of £56,000; the report says the trust's main activity is "sending funds to the Institute in Jerusalem" but does not give an amount per recipient.[2]

Israeli partners

Institute Ohr Yechiel College for Advanced Rabbinic and Talmudic Studies, Jerusalem (no address given).[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
The accounts place the institute in Jerusalem without an address or neighbourhood; its position relative to the 1949 armistice line is not established.[2] High (city named in the accounts; site 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;[10] 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.[11][12][13][14] 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.[15]
  • Presentation errors. The receipts and payments account labels the opening balance "Balance as at 1 April 2023" for the year beginning 1 April 2024, and the trustee's signature is not accompanied by a name.[2]
  • Spelling of trustee's name. The accounts give the chair's name as M. Rothfeld; the register gives Myer Rothfield.[2][3]

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).[16] No entry was found on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register (API name searches returned zero results).[17]

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.[18]

Grants recorded by 360Giving

No grants received or made by this charity are recorded in 360Giving data.[19]

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.[20]

Land and property

The register records that the charity does not own or lease land or property.[3] No title registers were purchased; the HM Land Registry interactive search blocked automated access.[21]

Parliament

Hansard exact-phrase searches for "Friends of Ohr Yechiel Trust", "The Friends of Ohr Yechiel Trust" returned 0 contributions in total.[22]

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".[4]

External links

  • No current official website.

Notes

  1. ↑ Charity Commission, The Friends of Ohr Yechiel Trust (1038062): 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 Charity Commission, Friends of Ohr Yechiel Trust (1038062): accounts and annual returns Register of Charities; latest accounts downloaded 16 October 2026 ("PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 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 Register entry 1038062, full print (capture of 20210107) UK Government Web Archive.
  5. ↑ Friends of Ohr Yechiel Trust accounts, year ended 2015-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  6. ↑ Friends of Ohr Yechiel Trust accounts, year ended 2016-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  7. ↑ Friends of Ohr Yechiel Trust accounts, year ended 2017-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  8. ↑ Friends of Ohr Yechiel Trust accounts, year ended 2018-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  9. ↑ Friends of Ohr Yechiel Trust accounts, year ended 2019-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  10. ↑ 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-23 charities, all retrieved on 16 October 2026 and checked for a "Regulatory alerts" notice; none was shown.
  11. ↑ Charity Commission, Serious concerns over use of £22 million triggers investigation by charity regulator GOV.UK, 14 May 2025.
  12. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator opens next phase of investigation into 105 charities connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 1 September 2025.
  13. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator announces next charities to be investigated as part of inquiry connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 4 December 2025.
  14. ↑ 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).
  15. ↑ 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").
  16. ↑ Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Scottish Charity Register download OSCR, export dated 14 October 2026; keyword search of the 25 batch-23 charity names found no matching Scottish registration.
  17. ↑ Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, Register of charities search API CCNI, searched 16 October 2026 (keyword searches for each of the 25 batch-23 charity names returned zero results).
  18. ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Ohr Yechiel' The Gazette, searched 16 October 2026.
  19. ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-1038062 360Giving, queried 16 October 2026.
  20. ↑ Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK Sanctions List (CSV); Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets (ConList.csv). Batch-23 screening covered 249 name strings: the 25 charity names and their other names, current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages, trustees, officers and other people 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 (such as "Trust", "Company Limited" in the name of a corporate formation agent, and ".com") and surname-only matches, which were rejected; no person matched. Screened 16 October 2026.
  21. ↑ 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.
  22. ↑ UK Parliament, Hansard search API: contributions matching the exact phrase "Ohr Yechiel" Hansard, queried 16 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).
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