The Eric Gelber Charitable Trust

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Edgware-administered trust for building a synagogue in Israel, holding over £5 million

The Eric Gelber Charitable Trust

Type Trust
Founded 2021-02-03 (registered)
Registration ID Registered charity 1193390
Headquarters Pinnick Lewis Llp, Handel House, 95 High St, Edgware, HA8 7DB
Area served Israel


The Eric Gelber Charitable Trust was created by trust deed of 28 May 1997 but registered only on 3 February 2021; Israel is its only register area.[1] Its object is to build a synagogue in Israel "at Petah-Tikva or Rishon le Zion or Rechovot or at such other town or place in the State of Israel in accordance with the wishes of the settlor, Mr Eric Gelber"; the trustees were "actively looking for building sites" (PDF p.4).[2] The trustees are Harvey Rose (chairman), Rabbi Leivi Isaac Sudak, Rabbi Stanley Levin and Dr David Krasner, and the address is Handel House, 95 High Street, Edgware HA8 7DB (PDF p.2, 13).[2] Income was £5,549,210 in 2022; in 2023 income was £276,779 and spending £512,856, funds were £5,304,962, with cash of £5,311,562 (PDF p.4, 10–11).[2]

Objects and activities

The charity's registered objects read: "I. FOR THE BUILDING OF A SYNAGOGUE AT PETAH-TIKVA ISRAEL OR ON THE EVENT THAT MY TRUSTEES SHALL CONSIDER, IN THEIR ABSOLUTE DISCRETION, THAT THE BUILDING OF A SYNAGOGUE IN SUCH LOCATION DOES NOT ACCORD WITH MY INTENTION TO PROVIDE A PLACE OF WORSHIP IN A LOCATION WHICH WILL BE SATISFACTORILY USED ON A REGULAR BASIS THEN FOR THE BUILDING OF A SYNAGOGUE AT RISHON LE ZION ISRAEL OR IN THE EVENT THAT MY TRUSTEES SHALL CONSIDER, IN THEIR ABSOLUTE DISCRETION, THAT THE BUILDING OF A SYNAGOGUE IN SUCH LOCATION DOES NOT ACCORD WITH MY INTENTION TO PROVIDE A PLACE OF WORSHIP IN A LOCATION WHICH WILL BE SATISFACTORILY USED ON A REGULAR BASIS THEN FOR THE BUILDING OF A SYNAGOGUE AT RECHOVOT ISRAELII. IN THE EVENT THAT MY TRUSTEES SHALL CONSIDER IN THEIR ABSOLUTE DISCRETION, THAT THE BUILDING OF A SYNAGOGUE AT PETAH-TIKVA OR AT RISHON LE ZION OR AT RECHOVOT DOES NOT ACCORD WITH MY INTENTION TO PROVIDE A PLACE OF WORSHIP IN A LOCATION WHICH WILL BE SATISFACTORILY USED ON A REGULAR BASIS THEN FOR THE BUILDING OF A SYNAGOGUE AT SUCH OTHER TOWN OR PLACE IN THE STATE OF ISRAEL AS MY TRUSTEES SHALL IN THEIR ABSOLUTE DISCRETION DECIDE"[1]

The register describes its activities as: "Building a synagogue in Israel"[1]

Register classifications: Religious Activities.[1]

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

Trustees

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

Trustees of The Eric Gelber Charitable Trust (register, October 2026)
Trustee Appointed Chair Other trusteeships
Rabbi Stanley Levin 1997-05-28 —
Dr David Krasner 1997-05-28 —
Rabbi Leivi Isaac Sudak 2020-11-11 —
Harvey Rose 2020-11-11 Crisis Counselling for Alleged Shoplifters (298165); H and M Rose Charitable Trust (288310)

Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)

Trustees shown in archived register pages
Capture date Trustees listed Source
2021-07-08 Rabbi Leivi Isaac Sudak; David Krasner; Harvey Rose (chair); Rabbi Shlomo Levin [3]

Finances

Income and expenditure, five most recent reported years
Financial year end Income Expenditure
2021-12-31 £0 £0
2022-12-31 £5,549,210 £18,661
2023-12-31 £287,269 £6,600

Source: register annual-return history.[1]

Funding in Israel

  • 2023: a single grant of £500,000, "Grant to Kehillat Haela Charity in Israel" (PDF p.16).[2]

Israeli partners

Kehillat Haela; a congregation of that name gives its address as Hamagid Mimezrich 5/2, Ramat Beit Shemesh. That it is the recipient was not confirmed.[2][4]

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
A congregation of the recipient's name is in Ramat Beit Shemesh, inside the 1949 armistice lines; the identification rests on the name only.[4] Low – Ramat Beit Shemesh (identification by name only; not confirmed)

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;[5] 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.[6][7][8][9] 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.[10]
  • Overdue and late reporting. The register shows the charity's reporting as "overdue by 349 days" (no 2024 accounts);[11] the 2022 and 2023 annual returns were received 232 and 347 days late.[1]
  • Annual return contradicts accounts. The 2023 annual return gives income of £287,269 and expenditure of £6,600, while the accounts give £276,779 and £512,856.[1][2]

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).[12] No entry was found on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register (API name searches returned zero results).[13]

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. A Deceased Estates notice of 9 December 2021 concerns an Eric Gelber of Stanmore; it was not established whether he was the settlor of this trust.[14][15]

Grants recorded by 360Giving

No grants received or made by this charity are recorded in 360Giving data.[16]

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.[17]

Land and property

The register records that the charity does not own or lease land or property.[1] No title registers were purchased.[18]

Parliament

Hansard exact-phrase searches for "Eric Gelber" returned 0 contributions in total.[19]

Web archive

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 "Recently registered" and "Other regulators: No information available".[3]

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 2.5 2.6 Charity Commission, The Eric Gelber Charitable Trust (1193390): accounts and annual returns Register of Charities; latest accounts downloaded 15 October 2026 ("PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Register entry 1193390, full print (capture of 20210708) UK Government Web Archive.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Kehilat Haela, Contact Us kehilathaela.org, viewed 15 October 2026 ("Kehillat Haela Hamagid Mimezrich 5/2 Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel").
  5. ↑ 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-10 charities, all retrieved successfully on 15 October 2026 and checked for a "Regulatory alerts" section; alerts were shown only for Solev Co Limited (254623) and Lehachyos (1170523).
  6. ↑ Charity Commission, Serious concerns over use of £22 million triggers investigation by charity regulator GOV.UK, 14 May 2025.
  7. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator opens next phase of investigation into 105 charities connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 1 September 2025.
  8. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator announces next charities to be investigated as part of inquiry connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 4 December 2025.
  9. ↑ 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.
  10. ↑ 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").
  11. ↑ Charity Commission, The Eric Gelber Charitable Trust (1193390): charity overview Register of Charities, viewed 15 October 2026 ("Charity reporting is overdue by 349 days").
  12. ↑ 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-10 charity names and their other names found no matching Scottish registration.
  13. ↑ Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, Register of charities search API CCNI, searched 15 October 2026 (keyword searches for each batch-10 charity name returned no relevant result; the search for "Kosov" returned only an unrelated removed charity, Kosova Support Group, showing that the API was answering).
  14. ↑ Deceased Estates: Eric Gelber The Gazette, notice 3939255, 9 December 2021, retrieved via the Gazette notice feed 15 October 2026.
  15. ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Eric Gelber' The Gazette, searched 15 October 2026.
  16. ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-1193390 360Giving, queried 15 October 2026.
  17. ↑ Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK Sanctions List (CSV); Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets (ConList.csv). Batch-10 screening covered 337 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 (including Pinlee Investments, Calvert Estates, Kendleville, Pidom Export, Faircastle, Hatzlocho, Localtrent, Ardina, Ridgesave, Portford, Wilkincroft and Pandor Estates), and trustees, lenders, donor companies 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 company words ("Services Limited" in the name of a corporate secretary) and surname-only coincidences; lists downloaded October 2026.
  18. ↑ 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.
  19. ↑ UK Parliament, Hansard search API: contributions matching the exact phrase "Eric Gelber" Hansard, queried 15 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).
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