Mesila UK

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Removed UK arm of the Israeli debt-counselling organisation Mesila, whose Israeli partner worked for welfare departments in Modi'in Illit and Beitar Illit

Mesila UK

Type Other (removed)
Founded 2006-06-06 (registered)
Dissolved 2020-03-10 (removed from the register)
Registration ID Registered charity 1114573
Area served Barnet, Hackney, Bury, Manchester City, Israel


Mesila UK was registered on 6 June 2006 under a declaration of trust of 1 May 2006 and removed from the register on 10 March 2020; register areas were Barnet, Hackney, Bury, Manchester and Israel.[1][2][3] Its object was "to advance the education of members of the Orthodox Jewish Community, both in the UK and in Israel, to achieve permanent financial stability and rescue them from the cycle of poverty and debt" (PDF p.4).[3] Trustees in its last archived accounts were Stephen Jonathan Goldberg, Michael Akiva Hackenbroch and Jonathan Schapira (PDF p.3).[3] In the year to 31 March 2018 income was £208,881 (donations £198,601), grants to Mesila Israel £103,742 and funds £6,493; it had 3 employees (PDF p.9, 13).[3] Its last reported year, to 31 March 2019, showed income of £167,318.[1]

Objects and activities

The charity's registered objects read: "1. TO ADVANCE EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF PERSONS OF THE JEWISH FAITH RESIDENT IN ISRAEL AND IN THE UNITED KINGDOM;2. TO RELIEVE PERSONS OF THE JEWISH FAITH RESIDENT IN ISRAEL AND IN THE UNITED KINGDOM WHO ARE IN NEED AND IN PARTICULAR THE FEEBLE INFIRM THE SICK AND THOSE SUFFERING FINANCIAL HARDSHIP;3. TO PROVIDE FACILITIES AND TRAINING FOR RECREATION AND OTHER LEISURE TIME OCCUPATIONS WITH THE OBJECT OF IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF LIFE OF THOSE PERSONS OF THE JEWISH FAITH RESIDENT IN ISRAEL AND IN THE UNITED KINGDOM WHO HAVE NEED OF SUCH FACILITIES BY REASON OF THEIR INFIRMITY DISABILITY POVERTY OR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CIRCUMSTANCES INCLUDING THE PROVISION OF SPORTING ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE;4. THE TRUSTEES SHALL HOLD THE CAPITAL AND INCOME OF THE TRUST FUND UPON TRUST TO APPLY THE INCOME AND ALL OR SUCH PART OR PARTS OF THE CAPITAL AT SUCH TIME OR TIMES AND IN SUCH MANNER AS THE TRUSTEES MAY IN THEIR ABSOLUTE DISCRETION THINK FIT FOR OR TOWARDS SUCH OF THE OBJECTS OF THE CHARITY AS THE TRUSTEES MAY FROM TIME TO TIME AT THEIR ABSOLUTE DISCRETION DETERMINE INCLUDING PAYMENTS BY WAY OF GIFT OR LOAN (WITH OR WITHOUT INTEREST) TO INDIVIDUAL PERSONS IN ANY PART OF THE WORLD PROVIDED THAT SUCH PERSONS QUALIFY AS OBJECTS OF THE CHARITY AND IN PARTICULAR FOR THE CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES OF THE ORGANISATION AS DETERMINED BY ENGLISH LAW"[1]

The register describes its activities as: "The main objects of the charity are to advance the education of members of the Orthodox Jewish Community, both in the UK and in Israel, to achieve permanent financial stability and rescue them from the cycle of poverty and debt."[1]

Register classifications: Education/training, The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty.[1]

Areas of operation recorded on the register: Barnet, Hackney, Bury, Manchester City, Israel.[1]

Trustees

The register extract holds no trustee records for removed charities.

Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)

Trustees shown in archived register pages
Capture date Trustees listed Source
2013-09-05 Michael Akiva Hackenbroch; Stephen Jonathan Goldberg; Jonathan Schapira; Meir Maslo; David Katz [4]
2014-05-07 Michael Akiva Hackenbroch; Stephen Jonathan Goldberg; Jonathan Schapira; Meir Maslo; David Katz [5]

Companies House lists Michael Akiva Hackenbroch, Chagai Kahn and Samuel Margulies as directors of MESILA UK LIMITED (10561315), with Benjamin Landau as secretary.[6]

Finances

Income and expenditure, five most recent reported years
Financial year end Income Expenditure
2016-03-31 £123,449 £93,855
2017-03-31 £170,676 £207,147
2018-03-31 £208,881 £203,644
2019-03-31 £167,318 £172,079

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 31/03/2008[7]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2009[8]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2010[9]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2011[10]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2012[11]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2013[12]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2014[13]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2015[14]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2016[15]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2017[16]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2018[17]

Funding in Israel

  • FY2018 grants to Mesila Israel £103,742 (2017: £139,441); the charity intended "to continue providing to Mesila Israel"; Mesila Israel served UK clients by Skype and telephone, and "Training new coaches is an ongoing concern in Israel" (PDF p.5–6, 13).[3]
  • The National Lottery Community Fund gave the charity two grants of about £10,000 for UK debt advice (2016 and 2017) – see 360Giving below.

Israeli partners

Mesila (Israel), a financial-counselling organisation whose Israel office is in Jerusalem; it lists Mesila UK branches in London, Manchester and Gateshead.[18] In 2015 "Mesila was chosen by Welfare Departments of Bnei Brak, Modi'in Illit, Beitar Illit and Elad to provide services through a new national initiative".[19]

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
Partner: Mesila provided services for the welfare departments of Modi'in Illit and Beitar Illit, Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, under a 2015 national initiative.[19] High
Use of UK funds in those settlements: the accounts name no place.[3] Not established

Support for the IDF: No IDF or military funding is stated.[3]

Controversies and regulatory action

  • No Charity Commission inquiry naming this charity was found; it is not named in the 2025–2026 cheque-cashing class-inquiry announcements or statement of results, and the charities in the August 2026 settlements class inquiry have not been named.[20][21][22][23][24] The register shows it as "Removed charity" without giving a reason.[2]
  • Unsigned approval date. The 2018 trustees' report leaves the approval date blank ("………….. 2018") and misspells the charity's name as "Melisa's"; it states there were no related-party transactions (PDF p.6, 14).[3]
  • Successor company. MESILA UK LIMITED (charity 1179291, company 10561315), registered on 23 July 2018 with financial-education activities, has had Michael Akiva Hackenbroch as a director since 2017 and had Stephen Jonathan Goldberg as a director until 2021; its latest income is £214,899 (year to 30 November 2025).[1][6] A further CIO, Friends of Mesila (1218031), was registered on 12 May 2026.[1] No transfer of funds between these charities was seen in the sources read.

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).[25] No entry was found on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register (API name searches returned zero results).[26]

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.[27]

Grants recorded by 360Giving

Grants received (360Giving data)
Date Funder Amount (£) Purpose
2016-07-13 The National Lottery Community Fund 9,995 The group will use the funding to set up and deliver a debt advice and management counselling service for individuals and families from the
2017-11-22 The National Lottery Community Fund 9,963 This project will run a coaching programme in which they will train 25 people to become financial coaches, enabling the group to support mor

No grants made by the charity are published in 360Giving data, so flows between linked charities could not be traced there.[28]

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.[29]

Land and property

The register records that the charity owns and/or leases land or property.[1] No title registers were purchased; the HM Land Registry interactive search blocked automated access.[30]

US counterparts (ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer)

Organisation EIN Latest filing year Revenue (US$) Expenses (US$)
Mesila International Inc[31] 113597720 2023 550,875 500,641

These US organisations share the name or beneficiary of the UK charity; no financial flows between them and the UK charity were established.

Parliament

Hansard exact-phrase searches for "Mesila UK", "Mesila" returned 0 contributions in total.[32]

Web archive

  • mesila.org: 19 yearly captures, first 2008-05-10, last 2026-01-17.[33]

The UK Government Web Archive holds 1 archived Charity Commission register page used in this profile (cited in the sections above). The 2021 archived full print showed the status "Removed charity" and "Other regulators: not shown".[34]

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 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. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Charity Commission, Register of Charities, overview pages for the removed charities 290062 (organisation 290062), 1114573 (organisation 4023776), 328504 (organisation 328504) and 1101688 (organisation 4005492), retrieved 16 October 2026 (each marked "Removed charity", with activities and the last income and expenditure figures; no removal reason is shown).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Charity Commission, Mesila UK: report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2018 UK Government Web Archive, capture of 08/01/2020 (the charity was removed in 2020 and no accounts are downloadable from the live register; this is the latest accounts file found; "PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
  4. ↑ Register entry 1114573, contact and trustees (capture of 20130905) UK Government Web Archive.
  5. ↑ Register entry 1114573, contact and trustees (capture of 20140507) UK Government Web Archive.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Companies House, MESILA UK LIMITED (10561315): officers Find and update company information, viewed 16 October 2026 (incorporated 12 January 2017; directors include Michael Akiva Hackenbroch (from 12 January 2017), Chagai Kahn (from 20 July 2017), Samuel Margulies (from 9 June 2025); secretary Benjamin Landau (from 12 January 2017); Mordecai Halpern was a director from 20 July 2017 to 1 April 2026 and Stephen Jonathan Goldberg was a director from 12 January 2017 to 7 December 2021).
  7. ↑ Mesila UK accounts, year ended 2008-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20130905).
  8. ↑ Mesila UK accounts, year ended 2009-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20130905).
  9. ↑ Mesila UK accounts, year ended 2010-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20130905).
  10. ↑ Mesila UK accounts, year ended 2011-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20130905).
  11. ↑ Mesila UK accounts, year ended 2012-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20130905).
  12. ↑ Mesila UK accounts, year ended 2013-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20140104).
  13. ↑ Mesila UK accounts, year ended 2014-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  14. ↑ Mesila UK accounts, year ended 2015-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  15. ↑ Mesila UK accounts, year ended 2016-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  16. ↑ Mesila UK accounts, year ended 2017-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  17. ↑ Mesila UK accounts, year ended 2018-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  18. ↑ Mesila, Local Branches mesila.org, retrieved 16 October 2026 (Israel office in Jerusalem; "Mesila UK" with London, Manchester and Gateshead numbers).
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Mesila, Noshmim l'Revacha: Mesila in conjunction with municipal Welfare Departments mesila.org, 9 July 2015, retrieved 16 October 2026 ("Mesila was chosen by Welfare Departments of Bnei Brak, Modi'in Illit, Beitar Illit and Elad to provide services through a new national initiative").
  20. ↑ Charity Commission, Serious concerns over use of £22 million triggers investigation by charity regulator GOV.UK, 14 May 2025.
  21. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator opens next phase of investigation into 105 charities connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 1 September 2025.
  22. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator announces next charities to be investigated as part of inquiry connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 4 December 2025.
  23. ↑ 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).
  24. ↑ 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").
  25. ↑ Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Scottish Charity Register download OSCR, export dated 14 October 2026; keyword search of the 25 batch-14 charity names found no matching Scottish registration.
  26. ↑ Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, Register of charities search API CCNI, searched 16 October 2026 (keyword searches for each of the 25 batch-14 charity names returned zero results).
  27. ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Mesila' The Gazette, searched 16 October 2026.
  28. ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-1114573 360Giving, queried 16 October 2026.
  29. ↑ Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK Sanctions List (CSV); Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets (ConList.csv). Batch-14 screening covered 282 name strings: the 25 charity names, current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages, Companies House officers of the eight charitable companies, directors of the dissolved Etz Chaim Foundation company and of Mesila UK Limited, related companies and charities named in the accounts (including Bestgreat Ltd, Jonvan Properties, One Shakespeare Limited, Beauland Limited, Tifereth Benevolent Fund Limited and Torah Temimah Trust) and trustees, examiners and donors named in the accounts read for this batch; matching on surname plus forename tokens, reviewed manually. No forename-and-surname match for any person or company was found; the only token matches were surname-only coincidences (for example Cohen and Jones); lists downloaded October 2026.
  30. ↑ 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.
  31. ↑ Mesila International Inc – Nonprofit Explorer ProPublica, viewed 16 October 2026.
  32. ↑ UK Parliament, Hansard search API: contributions matching the exact phrase "Mesila" Hansard, queried 16 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).
  33. ↑ Internet Archive CDX index for mesila.org Wayback Machine, queried 16 October 2026.
  34. ↑ Register entry 1114573, full print (capture of 20210105) UK Government Web Archive.
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