Friends of Shearim

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Edgware trust that gave £48,000 in 2025 to She'arim College of Jewish Studies, a women's seminary whose website gives its campus as Har Nof, Jerusalem

Friends of Shearim

Logo Har Nof Jerusalem 2023.jpg
Har Nof, Jerusalem (2023), where She'arim College, the charity's beneficiary, gives its campus
Type Trust
Founded 2001-06-29 (registered)
Registration ID Registered charity 1087281
Headquarters Edgware HA8
Area served Throughout London, Israel
Website www.shearim.com


Friends of Shearim is a charitable trust established by a deed of 20 February 2001 and registered on 29 June 2001; its principal office is in Edgware HA8.[1][2] Its objects provide for grants for education, religion and the relief of poverty, "and in particular to assist the She'arim College of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem"; the register says it raises funds "FOR A LADIES SEMINARY BASED IN ISRAEL".[2][3] The accounts for 2025 name the trustees as Mrs Y White, Mrs R Klein and Mrs S J Vegoda, matching the register's Yael White, Ruth Klein and Stephanie Jacqueline Vegoda (both from 23 August 2023).[2][3] Donations were £47,417 (2024: £57,779); grants to She'arim College of Jewish Studies were £48,000 (2024: £56,000) and support and governance costs £999, and funds fell from £24,021 to £22,439.[2] Note 13 records donations of £225 from a related party.[2] The accounts were examined by David Goldberg FCA DChA of Cohen Arnold, London NW11, and approved by Mrs S J Vegoda on 25 August 2026.[2] The website the register gives for the charity, shearim.com, is that of She'arim College for Jewish Women, which gives its campus as Har Nof, Jerusalem.[4]

Objects and activities

The charity's registered objects read: "(1) TO ADVANCE ORTHODOX JEWISH EDUCATION; (2) TO ADVANCE THE RELIGION OF THE JEWISH FAITH IN ACCORDANCE WITH ORTHODOX PRACTICE; (3) THE RELIEF OF POVERTY; (4) SUCH OTHER PURPOSES AS ARE RECOGNISED BY THE LAW OF ENGLAND AND WALES AS CHARITABLE."[3]

The register describes its activities as: "WE RAISE FUNDS FOR A LADIES SEMINARY BASED IN ISRAEL. THE SEMINARY IS OPEN TO ALL JEWISH LADIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD. THE LADIES ARE RAISED AND EDUCATED WITHIN THE LAWS OF ORTHODOX JEWRY. THE FUNDS ARE USED TO GET LADIES TO THE SEMINARY AND SUBSCRIBE THEIR HOUSING AND EDUCATION."[3]

Register classifications: Education/training, Religious Activities.[3]

Areas of operation recorded on the register: Throughout London, Israel.[3]

Trustees

Current trustees, with other charities on which the same register trustee ID appears:[3]

Trustees of Friends of Shearim (register, October 2026)
Trustee Appointed Chair Other trusteeships
Yael White not recorded —
Stephanie Jacqueline Vegoda 2023-08-23 —
Ruth Klein 2023-08-23 —

Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)

Trustees shown in archived register pages
Capture date Trustees listed Source
2021-01-09 Yael White; Naomi Meyer; Lana Ziskind [5]

Finances

Income and expenditure, five most recent reported years
Financial year end Income Expenditure
2021-12-31 £38,886 £35,603
2022-12-31 £34,084 £36,256
2023-12-31 £40,988 £31,302
2024-12-31 £57,779 £57,188
2025-12-31 £47,417 £48,999

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 31/12/2015[6]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2016[7]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2017[8]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2018[9]

Funding in Israel

  • 2025: grants of £48,000 to She'arim College of Jewish Studies (2024: £56,000).[2]

Israeli partners

She'arim College of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, named in the objects; its website, which the register gives as the charity's own, calls it She'arim College for Jewish Women.[2][4]

Activity beyond the Green Line and support for the IDF

Har Nof, Jerusalem, seen from Yad Vashem (2019); She'arim College, which received £48,000 from the charity in 2025, gives its campus as Har Nof

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 college's website gives its campus as "Har Nof, Jerusalem, Israel"; no source read for this profile states the position of Har Nof relative to the 1949 armistice line.[4] High (neighbourhood named by the recipient's website; position relative to the 1949 line 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]

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 Shearim", "Shearim" returned 0 contributions in total.[22]

Web archive

  • shearim.com: 29 yearly captures, first 1998-12-02, last 2026-01-06.[23]

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".[5]

External links

Notes

  1. ↑ Charity Commission, Friends of Shearim (1087281): full print Register of Charities, retrieved 16 October 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 Charity Commission, Friends of Shearim (1087281): 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 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 4.2 She'arim College for Jewish Women, Home page shearim.com, viewed 16 October 2026.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Register entry 1087281, full print (capture of 20210109) UK Government Web Archive.
  6. ↑ Friends of Shearim accounts, year ended 2015-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200103).
  7. ↑ Friends of Shearim accounts, year ended 2016-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200103).
  8. ↑ Friends of Shearim accounts, year ended 2017-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200103).
  9. ↑ Friends of Shearim accounts, year ended 2018-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200103).
  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 'Friends of Shearim' The Gazette, searched 16 October 2026.
  19. ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-1087281 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 "Friends of Shearim" Hansard, queried 16 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).
  23. ↑ Internet Archive CDX index for shearim.com Wayback Machine, queried 16 October 2026.
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