Friends of Seret-Visnitz

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Golders Green trust sending money for Jewish religious education in Israel, reported on handwritten forms

Friends of Seret-Visnitz

Type Other
Founded 1991-03-04 (registered)
Registration ID Registered charity 1002106
Headquarters London NW11
Area served Israel


Friends of Seret-Visnitz was registered on 4 March 1991 under a declaration of trust; its only register area is Israel.[1][2] Its object is "To advance Jewish religious education in Israel", and in the year to 31 March 2025 it "collected and sent money to advance of Jewish religious education and to relieve poverty in Israel" (page images, p.2).[2] Its trustees are Zev Adler and Menachem Erlich, with a principal address in London NW11.[1][2] Receipts were £193,965.58 and payments for charitable purposes £189,563.68 (page images, p.4).[2]

Objects and activities

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

The register describes its activities as: "To assist in the provision of orthodox jewish education and religious acctivities in the UK and abroad."[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 Seret-Visnitz (register, October 2026)
Trustee Appointed Chair Other trusteeships
Zev Adler not recorded —
Menachem Erlich not recorded —

Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)

Trustees shown in archived register pages
Capture date Trustees listed Source
2021-01-09 Zev Adler (chair); Menachem Erlich [3]

Finances

Income and expenditure, five most recent reported years
Financial year end Income Expenditure
2021-03-31 £63,512 £18,079
2022-03-31 £75,425 £103,653
2023-03-31 £402,406 £371,650
2024-03-31 £91,914 £132,815
2025-03-31 £193,965 £189,563

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 31/03/2014[4]
  • 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]

Funding in Israel

  • FY2025 payments for charitable purposes £189,563.68 (2024: £132,625.34), sent "to advance of Jewish religious education and to relieve poverty in Israel"; no recipient is named (page images, p.2, 4).[2]

Israeli partners

Not named in the accounts.[2] By name, the likely beneficiaries are the Seret-Viznitz Hasidic institutions, which directories place at Mekor Baruch 5, Haifa, and as "Institutions of Siret Vizhnitz in Eretz Israel" in Haifa (established 1985); no payment to them is recorded.[9][10]

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 Seret-Viznitz institutions are listed in Haifa, inside Israel's pre-1967 lines; the link to this charity rests on its name only.[9][10] Low
The accounts name no place in Israel.[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;[11] 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.[12][13][14][15] 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.[16]
  • Handwritten return with outdated forms. The accounts are handwritten Charity Commission forms that cite sections of the Charities Act 1993, which was replaced by the Charities Act 2011; the independent examiner, S. Ostreicher, states no professional qualification (page images, p.5).[2]
  • Recipients not named. Payments of £189,563.68 are not broken down, and no institution or place in Israel is named (page images, p.2, 4).[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).[17] No entry was found on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register (API name searches returned zero results).[18]

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.[19]

Grants recorded by 360Giving

No grants received or made by this charity are recorded in 360Giving data.[20]

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.[21]

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.[22]

Parliament

Hansard exact-phrase searches for "Seret-Visnitz", "Seret Viznitz" returned 0 contributions in total.[23]

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 1.8 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 2.8 2.9 Charity Commission, Friends of Seret-Visnitz (1002106): 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 1002106, full print (capture of 20210109) UK Government Web Archive.
  4. ↑ Friends of Seret-Visnitz accounts, year ended 2014-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
  5. ↑ Friends of Seret-Visnitz accounts, year ended 2015-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
  6. ↑ Friends of Seret-Visnitz accounts, year ended 2016-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
  7. ↑ Friends of Seret-Visnitz accounts, year ended 2017-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
  8. ↑ Friends of Seret-Visnitz accounts, year ended 2018-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Torah Index, סערט ויז'ניץ (Seret Viznitz) torahindex.com (institutions directory, Hebrew), retrieved 15 October 2026 (address Mekor Baruch 5, Haifa 33181; association number 580056448).
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 JGive, Institutions of Siret Vizhnitz in Eretz Israel jgive.com, retrieved 15 October 2026 (location Haifa; charity number 580066769; established 1985).
  11. ↑ 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".
  12. ↑ Charity Commission, Serious concerns over use of £22 million triggers investigation by charity regulator GOV.UK, 14 May 2025.
  13. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator opens next phase of investigation into 105 charities connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 1 September 2025.
  14. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator announces next charities to be investigated as part of inquiry connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 4 December 2025.
  15. ↑ 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).
  16. ↑ 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").
  17. ↑ 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.
  18. ↑ 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).
  19. ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Seret Viznitz' The Gazette, searched 15 October 2026.
  20. ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-1002106 360Giving, queried 15 October 2026.
  21. ↑ 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.
  22. ↑ 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.
  23. ↑ UK Parliament, Hansard search API: contributions matching the exact phrase "Seret Viznitz" Hansard, queried 15 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).
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