Rabbi Z Michael Memorial Fund

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Gateshead evening-kollel trust giving about £100,000 a year in grants and stipends, £5,510 of it to the needy in Israel

Rabbi Z Michael Memorial Fund

Type Other
Founded 2003-03-31 (registered)
Registration ID Registered charity 1096774
Headquarters Gateshead NE8
Area served Gateshead, Israel
Key people Abraham Weiniger (chair)


Rabbi Z Michael Memorial Fund, also known as Evening Kollel Kesser Hatorah, is a trust established by a declaration of 28 November 2002 and registered on 31 March 2003; register areas are Gateshead and Israel.[1] Its objects are Orthodox Jewish religious education, the Orthodox Jewish religion and the relief of poverty among Jewish people.[1] The trustees are Abraham Weiniger (chair), Simcha Kohn and Andrew Gerard Oppenheimer, and the unpaid administrator is Rabbi Joseph Galandauer, with an address in Gateshead NE8; the examiner is Atkinsons Bloom Mayer of Wallsend (PDF p.2–3).[1][2] The charity "disburses grants and stipends"; in the year to 31 March 2025 donations were £105,380 and charitable disbursements £102,793, mostly to the needy in the UK (£90,040) (PDF p.3, 6, 9).[2]

Objects and activities

The charity's registered objects read: "1. THE ADVANCEMENT OF ORTHODOX JEWISH RELIGIOUS EDUCATION2. THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE ORTHODOX JEWISH RELIGION AND3. THE RELIEF OF POVERTY THE FEEBLE AND INFIRM AMONGST MEMBERS OF THE JEWISH FAITH"[1]

The register describes its activities as: "The charity provides funds to encourage Orthodox Jewish education by giving stipends to enable students to continue their studies. It also provides charitable support to the poor and to other religious educational establishments and places of worship."[1]

Register classifications: General Charitable Purposes, Education/training, The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty, Religious Activities.[1]

Areas of operation recorded on the register: Gateshead, Israel.[1]

Trustees

Current trustees, with other charities on which the same register trustee ID appears:[1]

Trustees of Rabbi Z Michael Memorial Fund (register, October 2026)
Trustee Appointed Chair Other trusteeships
Simcha Kohn not recorded Chasdei Kohn (801989); Jewish Teachers' Training College (527404); Partio Charitable Trust (1115637); Yeshivah L'zeirim (514963)
Abraham Weiniger not recorded Yes Gateshead Kollel Horo'ah (1101383)
Andrew Gerard Oppenheimer 2022-03-08 —

Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)

Trustees shown in archived register pages
Capture date Trustees listed Source
2010-07-15 Jacob Kaufman Abraham Weiniger; Simcha Kohn [3]
2021-01-17 Abraham Weiniger (chair) – also trustee of Gateshead Kollel Horo'ah; Jacob Kaufman – also trustee of Gateshead Jewish High School for Girls Limited, Sadie Smulovitch Children's Trust Ltd, Gjhs Property Company Limited; Simcha Kohn – also trustee of Yeshivah L'zeirim, Chasdei Kohn, Jewish Teachers' Training College, Partio Charitable Trust [4]

Finances

Income and expenditure, five most recent reported years
Financial year end Income Expenditure
2021-03-31 £165,759 £143,491
2022-03-31 £185,009 £181,522
2023-03-31 £216,163 £216,641
2024-03-31 £124,265 £134,442
2025-03-31 £105,380 £107,888

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[5]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2015[6]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2016[7]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2017[8]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2018[9]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2019[10]

Funding in Israel

  • FY2025 grants to the needy in Israel £5,510 (2024: £20,057), against £90,040 to the needy in the UK; no recipients are named (PDF p.9).[2]

Israeli partners

No 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.

Evidence of activity beyond the 1949 armistice line
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]

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 "Rabbi Z Michael Memorial Fund", "Kesser Hatorah" 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".[4]

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 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Charity Commission, Rabbi Z Michael Memorial Fund (1096774): accounts and annual returns Register of Charities; latest accounts downloaded 16 October 2026 ("PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
  3. ↑ Register entry 1096774, contact and trustees (capture of 20100715) UK Government Web Archive.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Register entry 1096774, full print (capture of 20210117) UK Government Web Archive.
  5. ↑ Rabbi Z Michael Memorial Fund accounts, year ended 2014-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  6. ↑ Rabbi Z Michael Memorial Fund accounts, year ended 2015-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  7. ↑ Rabbi Z Michael Memorial Fund accounts, year ended 2016-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  8. ↑ Rabbi Z Michael Memorial Fund accounts, year ended 2017-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  9. ↑ Rabbi Z Michael Memorial Fund accounts, year ended 2018-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  10. ↑ Rabbi Z Michael Memorial Fund accounts, year ended 2019-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200702).
  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-17 charities, all retrieved successfully on 16 October 2026 and checked for a "Regulatory alerts" section; none was shown for any of them. Seventeen registered charities showed "Charity reporting is up to date (on time)"; Starscope Limited showed "up to date (23 days late)", UK Friends of Tzohar "up to date (18 days late)" and The Mr W and Mrs I Carrant Charitable Trust "up to date (3 days late)"; BFON Trust showed no reporting-status line; Yeshiva Gedola Zichron Michoel, Friends of Reb Sender Dominitz, Emerald Benevolence Ltd and Academic Study Group 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-17 charity names found no matching Scottish registration.
  18. ↑ Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, Register of charities search API CCNI, searched 16 October 2026 (keyword searches for each of the 25 batch-17 charity names returned no matching charity).
  19. ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Rabbi Z Michael Memorial Fund' The Gazette, searched 16 October 2026.
  20. ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-1096774 360Giving, queried 16 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-17 screening covered 231 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 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 Rotenberg, Weiss, Levy and Cohen) or generic words such as "Ltd", "International", "Group" and "Team"; 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 "Rabbi Z Michael Memorial Fund" Hansard, queried 16 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).
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