The British Friends of Midrash Shmuel

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UK friends' trust giving all its grants to the Midrash Shmuel yeshiva, Shaarei Chessed, Jerusalem

The British Friends of Midrash Shmuel

Type Trust
Founded 1995-11-23 (registered)
Registration ID Registered charity 1050989
Headquarters London NW11
Area served Barnet, Israel


The British Friends of Midrash Shmuel is a trust (deed of 1 August 1995, amended by scheme of 16 October 2020) registered on 23 November 1995; register areas are Barnet and Israel.[1] Its trustees are Jizchak Kruskal, Stanley Stimler and Alistair Braham, and its address is in London NW11; "The power to appoint new trustees is vested with Moshe Eli Kruskal" (PDF p.3).[1][2] Its objects support the Midrash Shmuel yeshiva, "in particular to assist the Midrash Shmuel Institute for Advanced Talmudic Studies". In the year to 5 April 2025 income was £239,855, expenditure £284,604 and funds £141,075 (PDF p.4, 7).[2]

Objects and activities

The charity's registered objects read: "(1) ASSISTING IN THE ESTABLISHMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF THE MIDRASH SHMUEL YESHIVA WITH THE AIM OF TEACHING JEWISH STUDIES TO STUDENTS AND IMMIGRANTS; (2) ESTABLISHING AND MAINTANING SCHOLARSHIPS FOR NEEDY STUDENTS OF THE SAID INSTITUTION ENGAGED IN TALMUDICAL RESEARCH JEWISH EDUCATION AND STUDIES. (3) TO ENGAGE IN ANY CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES ANCILLARY TO THE ABOVE OBJECTS."[1]

The register describes its activities as: "RAISING AND RECEIVING DONATIONS FROM NUMEROUS DONORS BOTH THROUGH GIFTAID AND OTHERWISE AND RECEIVING A MODEST AMOUNT OF INVESTMENT INCOME FROM FUNDS DEPOSITED. PAYING OUT GRANTS IN FURTHERANCE OF THE CHARITY'S OBJECTIVES TO MAINTAIN SCHOLARSHIPS AND THE STUDIES OF NEEDY RABBINICAL AND TALMUDIC STUDENTS AT HIGHER INSTITUTES OF STUDY, ALSO ENGAGING IN CONNECTED CHARITABLE ACTIVITES."[1]

Register classifications: General Charitable Purposes, Education/training.[1]

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

Trustees

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

Trustees of The British Friends of Midrash Shmuel (register, October 2026)
Trustee Appointed Chair Other trusteeships
Jizchak Kruskal not recorded British Friends of Return/shuvu (1100984)
Stanley Stimler not recorded —
Alistair Braham 2018-03-12 —

Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)

Trustees shown in archived register pages
Capture date Trustees listed Source
2011-09-17 Salo Bordon; Jizchak Kruskal; Stanley Stimler [3]
2011-09-20 Salo Bordon; Jizchak Kruskal; Stanley Stimler [4]
2021-01-15 Alistair Braham (from 12 March 2018); Stanley Stimler – also trustee of British Friends of Mercaz Hatorah, Beth Shmuel Synagogue Limited; Jizchak Kruskal – also trustee of British Friends of Return/shuvu [5]

Jizchak Kruskal is also a register trustee of British Friends of Return/Shuvu (1100984).[1]

Finances

Income and expenditure, five most recent reported years
Financial year end Income Expenditure
2021-04-05 £109,907 £29,094
2022-04-05 £88,630 £77,232
2023-04-05 £214,844 £183,997
2024-04-05 £215,586 £303,865
2025-04-05 £239,855 £284,604

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 05/04/2006[6]
  • Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2008[7]
  • Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2009[8]
  • Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2010[9]
  • Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2014[10]
  • Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2015[11]
  • Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2016[12]
  • Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2017[13]
  • Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2018[14]

Funding in Israel

  • FY2025 donations £282,360 (2024: £301,502), all to the Midrash Shmuel Institute for Advanced Talmudic Studies (PDF p.4, 10).[2]

Israeli partners

Yeshiva Midrash Shmuel, which describes itself as being in "the salubrious English speaking Shaarei Chessed neighborhood of Jerusalem", close to Sacher Park.[15] The accounts do not give its address; the identification rests on the name.[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
The yeshiva gives its location as Shaarei Chessed, a central-west Jerusalem neighbourhood west of the 1949 armistice line.[15] Low – Shaarei Chessed, Jerusalem (name identification only)

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;[16] 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.[17][18][19][20] 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.[21]

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).[22] No entry was found on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register (API name searches returned zero results).[23]

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.[24]

Grants recorded by 360Giving

No grants received or made by this charity are recorded in 360Giving data.[25]

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.[26]

Land and property

The register records that the charity does not own or lease land or property.[1] No title registers were purchased.[27]

US counterparts (ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer)

Organisation EIN Latest filing year Revenue (US$) Expenses (US$)
Midrash Shmuel Foundation[28] 392533842 no filings data — —

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 "Friends of Midrash Shmuel", "Midrash Shmuel" returned 0 contributions in total.[29]

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]

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), extract dated 14 October 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Charity Commission, The British Friends of Midrash Shmuel (1050989): accounts and annual returns Register of Charities; latest accounts downloaded 15 October 2026 ("PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
  3. ↑ Register entry 1050989, contact and trustees (capture of 20110917) UK Government Web Archive.
  4. ↑ Register entry 1050989, contact and trustees (capture of 20110920) UK Government Web Archive.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Register entry 1050989, full print (capture of 20210115) UK Government Web Archive.
  6. ↑ The British Friends of Midrash Shmuel accounts, year ended 2006-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20110917).
  7. ↑ The British Friends of Midrash Shmuel accounts, year ended 2008-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20110917).
  8. ↑ The British Friends of Midrash Shmuel accounts, year ended 2009-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20110917).
  9. ↑ The British Friends of Midrash Shmuel accounts, year ended 2010-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20110917).
  10. ↑ The British Friends of Midrash Shmuel accounts, year ended 2014-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200107).
  11. ↑ The British Friends of Midrash Shmuel accounts, year ended 2015-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200107).
  12. ↑ The British Friends of Midrash Shmuel accounts, year ended 2016-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200107).
  13. ↑ The British Friends of Midrash Shmuel accounts, year ended 2017-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200107).
  14. ↑ The British Friends of Midrash Shmuel accounts, year ended 2018-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200107).
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Yeshiva Midrash Shmuel, Frequently Asked Questions midrashshmuel.org, retrieved 15 October 2026 ("Midrash Shmuel is in the salubrious English speaking Shaarei Chessed neighborhood of Jerusalem ... close to Sacher Park").
  16. ↑ 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-11 charities, all retrieved successfully on 15 October 2026 and checked for a "Regulatory alerts" section; none was shown for any of them. The pages showed reporting status (for example "Charity reporting is up to date (39 days late)" for British Friends of Rambam Medical Centre, "(4 days late)" for British Friends of Aleh and "(11 days late)" for Urgent Projects).
  17. ↑ Charity Commission, Serious concerns over use of £22 million triggers investigation by charity regulator GOV.UK, 14 May 2025.
  18. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator opens next phase of investigation into 105 charities connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 1 September 2025.
  19. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator announces next charities to be investigated as part of inquiry connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 4 December 2025.
  20. ↑ 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.
  21. ↑ 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").
  22. ↑ 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-11 charity names found no matching Scottish registration (the only hits were unrelated names such as J R Gibb Charitable Trust and Boleskine Community Care).
  23. ↑ Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, Register of charities search API CCNI, searched 15 October 2026 (keyword searches for each of the 25 batch-11 charity names returned zero results).
  24. ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Midrash Shmuel' The Gazette, searched 15 October 2026.
  25. ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-1050989 360Giving, queried 15 October 2026.
  26. ↑ Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK Sanctions List (CSV); Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets (ConList.csv). Batch-11 screening covered 386 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 of related companies named in the accounts (GS Property Management Services, Igerville, Housefresh, Vitalina, Rochester Developments and Delapage), and trustees, examiners, donors and grant recipients named in the accounts read for this batch; matching on surname plus forename tokens, reviewed manually. No forename-and-surname match for any person was found; the only token matches were generic words in organisation names ("Trust", "Fund", "Israel", "Republic") and surname-only coincidences (Cohen, Levy, Friedman, Green, Said); lists downloaded October 2026.
  27. ↑ HM Land Registry, Search for land and property information GOV.UK, accessed 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.
  28. ↑ Midrash Shmuel Foundation – Nonprofit Explorer ProPublica, viewed 15 October 2026.
  29. ↑ UK Parliament, Hansard search API: contributions matching the exact phrase "Midrash Shmuel" Hansard, queried 15 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).
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