Mejaai Charitable Trust
Van Messel family trust in Golders Green with £752,073 of funds, mostly listed investments; it gave £59,347 to unnamed charities in 2025
| Mejaai Charitable Trust | |
|---|---|
| Type | Other |
| Logo | |
| Founded | 2006-01-31 (registered) |
| Founder(s) | |
| Dissolved | |
| Registration ID | Registered charity 1112867 |
| Status | |
| Headquarters | London NW11 |
| Location | |
| Area served | Throughout London, Israel |
| Services | |
| Registration | |
| Key people | |
| Website | |
| Remarks | |
Mejaai Charitable Trust is a trust established by a deed of 14 December 2005 and registered on 31 January 2006; its principal address is in London NW11 (PDF p.2).[1][2] The trustees are Michael Laurent van Messel, Elizabeth van Messel and Phillip Ullmann; the independent examiner is Anthony Epstein FCA of Paragon Partners, London NW4 (PDF p.2, 5).[2] In 2025 income was £77,360 (donations £51,220; investment income £26,140), donations made £59,347 (2024: £74,989) and investment gains £38,545; funds rose to £752,073, including listed investments of £615,834 (PDF p.4, 6–7, 10).[2]
Objects and activities
The charity's registered objects read: "THE ADVANCEMENT AND FURTHERANCE OF THE JEWISH RELIGION AND JEWISH RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND THE ALLEVIATION OF POVERTY AMONG THE JEWISH COMMUNITY THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.OTHER CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES THAT THE TRUSTEES MAY FROM TIME TO TIME DETERMINE."[1]
The register describes its activities as: "The advancement and furtherance of the Jewish religion and Jewish religious education and the alleviation of poverty or illness among the Jewish community throughout the world."[1]
Register classifications: General Charitable Purposes, Education/training, The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives, The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty.[1]
Areas of operation recorded on the register: Throughout London, Israel.[1]
Trustees
Current trustees, with other charities on which the same register trustee ID appears:[1]
| Trustee | Appointed | Chair | Other trusteeships |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michael Laurent Van Messel | not recorded | The Friends of Care for the Needy, Jerusalem Charity Fund (278467) | |
| Elizabeth Van Messel | not recorded | — | |
| Phillip Lionel Ullmann | 2013-10-09 | Hendon United Sports Club (1129769) |
Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)
| Capture date | Trustees listed | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2011-01-26 | Elizabeth Van Messel; Michael Laurent Van Messel; Jonathan Samuel Paisner | [3] |
| 2011-01-26 | Elizabeth Van Messel; Michael Laurent Van Messel; Jonathan Samuel Paisner | [4] |
| 2021-01-12 | Michael Laurent Van Messel – also trustee of The Friends of Care for the Needy, Jerusalem Charity Fund; Elizabeth Van Messel; Phillip Lionel Ullmann (from 09 October 2013) – also trustee of Hendon United Sports Club | [5] |
Michael Laurent van Messel is also a register trustee of The Friends of Care for the Needy, Jerusalem Charity Fund (278467).[1]
Finances
| Financial year end | Income | Expenditure |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-12-31 | £215,708 | £45,338 |
| 2022-12-31 | £119,976 | £76,307 |
| 2023-12-31 | £112,289 | £46,584 |
| 2024-12-31 | £53,434 | £75,665 |
| 2025-12-31 | £77,360 | £60,078 |
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 31/12/2014[6]
- Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2015[7]
- Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2016[8]
- Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2017[9]
- Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2018[10]
Funding in Israel
- No spending in Israel is identified; donations of £59,347 are not attributed to any recipient (PDF p.10).[2]
Israeli partners
No Israeli partner is named.[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.[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]
- Reserves well above policy. The reserves policy is "between three and six month's expenditure" and the report says "This level of reserves has been maintained throughout the year"; funds were £752,073 against charitable spending of £60,078 (PDF p.4, 6).[2]
- Inaccurate description. The notes call the charity "an incorporated Charity established by a charitable trust deed", although it is not a company, and the tax note cites the Taxes Act 1988 (PDF p.8–9).[2][1]
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 "Mejaai Charitable Trust", "Mejaai" 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".[5]
External links
- No current official website.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 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.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 Charity Commission, Mejaai Charitable Trust (1112867): accounts and annual returns Register of Charities; latest accounts downloaded 16 October 2026 ("PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
- ↑ Register entry 1112867, contact and trustees (capture of 20110126) UK Government Web Archive.
- ↑ Register entry 1112867, contact and trustees (capture of 20110126) UK Government Web Archive.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Register entry 1112867, full print (capture of 20210112) UK Government Web Archive.
- ↑ Mejaai Charitable Trust accounts, year ended 2014-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
- ↑ Mejaai Charitable Trust accounts, year ended 2015-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
- ↑ Mejaai Charitable Trust accounts, year ended 2016-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
- ↑ Mejaai Charitable Trust accounts, year ended 2017-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
- ↑ Mejaai Charitable Trust accounts, year ended 2018-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
- ↑ 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-19 charities, all retrieved successfully on 16 October 2026 and checked for a "Regulatory alerts" section; none was shown for any of them. Twenty-two registered charities showed "Charity reporting is up to date (on time)"; British Friends of Ramoth Jerusalem showed "Charity reporting is overdue by 1691 days"; Leibovici Charitable Trust and Friends of Bereaved Families Forum (1118221) showed "Removed charity".
- ↑ 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).
- ↑ 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").
- ↑ Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Scottish Charity Register download OSCR, export dated 14 October 2026; keyword search of the 25 batch-19 charity names found no matching Scottish registration.
- ↑ Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, Register of charities search API CCNI, searched 16 October 2026 (keyword searches for each of the 25 batch-19 charity names returned zero results).
- ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Mejaai Charitable Trust' The Gazette, searched 16 October 2026.
- ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-1112867 360Giving, queried 16 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-19 screening covered 358 name strings: the 25 charity names, current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages, Companies House officers of the eight charitable companies, and trustees, examiners, grantees and other people and bodies 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, Gold) or generic words in organisation names (Trust, Ltd, Limited).
- ↑ 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 "Mejaai Charitable Trust" Hansard, queried 16 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).