Friends of Torah V'Emunah
Stamford Hill trust funding the Israeli outreach body Torah V'emunah
| Friends of Torah V'Emunah
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Trust |
| Founded | 1993-02-09 (registered) |
| Registration ID | Registered charity 1016943 |
| Headquarters | Flat 6, Zemba House, 63 Stamford Hill, London, N16 5FE |
| Area served | Hackney, Israel |
| Key people | Yosef Shalom Grunfeld (chair) |
Friends of Torah V'Emunah was established by trust deed on 7 January 1993 and registered on 9 February 1993; register areas are Hackney and Israel.[1] Its trustees are Y S Grunfeld, E Farber, M Farber and B Dresdner, and its administration address is Flat 6 Zemba House, 63 Stamford Hill, London N16 5FE. In the year to 5 April 2025 income was £339,423 and grants £339,950 (2024: £300,000); funds were £10,786 (PDF p.3–5, 7).[2]
Objects and activities
The charity's registered objects read: "THE BENEFIT AND PROMOTION OF THE ORTHODOX JEWISH RELIGION AND ORTHODOX JEWISH RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN ANY PART OF THE WORLD IN SUCH MANNER AS THE TRUSTEES MAY FROM TIME TO TIME DETERMINE."[1]
The register describes its activities as: "Further orthodox Jewish teaching and general charitable courses"[1]
Register classifications: General Charitable Purposes, Education/training, Religious Activities.[1]
Areas of operation recorded on the register: Hackney, Israel.[1]
Trustees
Current trustees, with other charities on which the same register trustee ID appears:[1]
| Trustee | Appointed | Chair | Other trusteeships |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mr M Farber | not recorded | — | |
| Yosef Shalom Grunfeld | 2016-06-22 | Yes | — |
| Berish Dresdner | 2023-03-19 | UK Friends of Ahavas Chesed (1134987); UK Friends of Tzohar (1157419) | |
| Elias Farber | 2025-06-10 | — |
Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)
| Capture date | Trustees listed | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-01-06 | Yosef Shalom Grunfeld (chair) (from 22 June 2016); Elias Farber; M Farber | [3] |
Finances
| Financial year end | Income | Expenditure |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-04-05 | £123,718 | £128,039 |
| 2022-04-05 | £214,613 | £218,933 |
| 2023-04-05 | £239,220 | £232,594 |
| 2024-04-05 | £306,336 | £300,766 |
| 2025-04-05 | £339,423 | £341,094 |
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 05/04/2014[4]
- Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2015[5]
- Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2016[6]
- Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2017[7]
- Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2018[8]
Funding in Israel
- FY2025 grants £339,950; "The Main grant of the Charity went to Torah V'emunah, an organisation in Israel that provides education and seminars about orthodox Jewish Religion to the general public" (PDF p.4–5).[2]
Israeli partners
Torah V'emunah (location not 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.
| Finding | Confidence |
|---|---|
| No place in Israel is named. | 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;[9] 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.[10][11][12][13] 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.[14]
Other registers and records
Scotland and Northern Ireland
No entry was found on the Scottish Charity Register for this charity (register export dated 15 October 2026, downloaded 15 October 2026 and searched by name).[15] No entry was found on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register (API name searches returned zero results).[16]
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.[17]
Grants recorded by 360Giving
| Date | Funder | Amount (£) | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-06-23 | The National Lottery Community Fund | 9,990 | Funding will be used to support young people from the Orthodox Jewish community who are affected by isolation and mental health issues. This |
| 2025-05-01 | The National Lottery Community Fund | 19,980 | Friends of Torah V'emunah - Community - National Lottery Awards for All England |
No grants made by the charity are published in 360Giving data, so flows between linked charities could not be traced there.[18]
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.[19]
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.[20]
Parliament
Hansard exact-phrase searches for "Torah V'Emunah", "Torah Vemunah" returned 0 contributions in total.[21]
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
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 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), extract dated 14 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Charity Commission, Friends of Torah V'Emunah (1016943): accounts and annual returns Register of Charities; latest accounts downloaded 15 October 2026 ("PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Register entry 1016943, full print (capture of 20210106) UK Government Web Archive.
- ↑ Friends of Torah V'Emunah accounts, year ended 2014-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
- ↑ Friends of Torah V'Emunah accounts, year ended 2015-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
- ↑ Friends of Torah V'Emunah accounts, year ended 2016-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
- ↑ Friends of Torah V'Emunah accounts, year ended 2017-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
- ↑ Friends of Torah V'Emunah accounts, year ended 2018-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
- ↑ 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-9 charities, all retrieved successfully on 15 October 2026 and checked for a "Regulatory alerts" section; none of the 25 pages showed an alert.
- ↑ 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), both retrieved 15 October 2026.
- ↑ Charity Commission, Charity regulator opens inquiry into charities working in illegal Israeli settlements GOV.UK, 5 August 2026, retrieved 15 October 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, downloaded October 2026; keyword search of the 25 batch-9 charity names and their other 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 batch-9 charity name returned zero results; a control search returned results normally).
- ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Torah V'Emunah' The Gazette, searched 15 October 2026.
- ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-1016943 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-9 screening covered 296 name strings: the 25 charity names, current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages (UK Government Web Archive), Companies House officers of the charitable companies, and trustees, officers, lenders, donor companies, subsidiaries and grant recipients named in the accounts read for this batch (including Bextor Estates Ltd, Newmarston Ltd, PWorld.UK Ltd and Gateway Sight Ltd and their directors); matching on surname plus forename tokens, reviewed manually. No forename-and-surname candidate arose; all candidates were surname-only coincidences or generic word overlaps (for example "Trust" or "Israel"); 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.
- ↑ UK Parliament, Hansard search API: contributions matching the exact phrase "Torah V'Emunah" Hansard, queried 15 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).