UK Friends of Yeshivas Mekor Chaim
Gateshead trust that granted £30,500 to Yeshivas Mekor Chaim in 2024/25; its accounts give no location for the yeshiva beyond Israel
| UK Friends of Yeshivas Mekor Chaim
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Trust |
| Founded | 2005-10-21 (registered) |
| Registration ID | Registered charity 1111779 |
| Headquarters | Gateshead NE8 |
| Area served | Israel |
UK Friends of Yeshivas Mekor Chaim is a UK registered charity (no. 1111779). According to the UK Charity Commission, the charity exists to provide support to the Mekor Chaim yeshiva.[1] The yeshiva is based in the illegal settlement of Kfar Etzion in the occupied West Bank.[2] [3]
History
The organisation became a registered charity in 2005.[4]
Objects and activities
The charity's registered objects read: "THE TRUSTEES SHALL HOLD THE TRUST FUND AND ITS INCOME UPON TRUST TO APPLY THEM FOR THE FOLLOWING OBJECTS ("THE OBJECTS"):-1) TO ADVANCE THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE DOCTRINES AND PRINCIPLES OF THE ORTHODOX JEWISH FAITH IN PARTICULARLY BY THE SUPPORT AND FINANCE OF THE INSTITUTE OF JEWISH LEARNING AND EDUCATION KNOWN AS YESHIVAS MEKOR CHAIM SITUATE IN ISRAEL AND THROUGHOUT THE WORLD."[5]
The register describes its activities as: "advancement of religious education in accordance with the doctrines and principles of the orthodox Jewish faith, and particularly by the support and finance of the institute of Jewish learning and education known as Yeshivas Mekor Chaim situated in Israel, and throughout the world"[5]
Register classifications: General Charitable Purposes, Education/training, The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty, Religious Activities.[5]
Areas of operation recorded on the register: Israel.[5]
Finances and Funding
Between 2010 and 2014 the charity spent £81,092.[1]
Latest figures (Charity Commission register)
| Financial year end | Income | Expenditure |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-03-31 | £64,230 | £57,045 |
| 2022-03-31 | £61,310 | £76,970 |
| 2023-03-31 | £44,235 | £44,393 |
| 2024-03-31 | £48,251 | £40,718 |
| 2025-03-31 | £27,878 | £31,070 |
Source: register annual-return history.[5]
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[6]
- Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2018[7]
- Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2019[8]
People
Board of Directors circa July 2015
Eli Lobenstein | Kayla Grynhaus
Current trustees (Charity Commission register, October 2026)
Current trustees, with other charities on which the same register trustee ID appears:[5]
| Trustee | Appointed | Chair | Other trusteeships |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kayla Grynhaus | not recorded | — | |
| Eli Lobenstein | 2013-05-07 | — |
Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)
| Capture date | Trustees listed | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-01-13 | Kayla Grynhaus; Eli Lobenstein (from 07 May 2013) | [9] |
Funding in Israel
- Year to 31 March 2025: grants to Yeshivas Mekor Chaim £30,500 (2024: £40,100).[10]
Israeli partners
Yeshivas Mekor Chaim; the accounts give no address or town.[10]
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 |
|---|---|
| The accounts name no town for the yeshiva; no source fetched for this profile places it.[10] | Not established |
Support for the IDF: No IDF or military funding is stated.[10]
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]
- Donation from a trustee's husband. The related-party note records that "Mr David Grynhaus, the husband of Mrs Kayla Grynhaus, donated £500".[10]
- Minor inconsistency. Note 6 gives 2024 charitable grants of £40,190, while notes 5 and 8 give £40,100.[10]
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 for the charity's name returned only Companies House filing lists; no insolvency, winding-up or strike-off notice naming the charity was found.[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.[21]
Land and property
The register records that the charity does not own or lease land or property.[5] No title registers were purchased; the HM Land Registry interactive search blocked automated access.[22]
Parliament
Hansard exact-phrase searches for "UK Friends of Yeshivas Mekor Chaim", "Mekor Chaim" 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".[9]
Contact
Address circa July 2015:
- Rabbi David Grynhaus
- 11 Leabourne Road
- London
- N16 6SU
- Phone: 0208 8006313
- Email: eli@gjhs.org.uk
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Charity Commission Website Charity Overview. Accessed 7 July 2015.
- ↑ Yeshivas Mekor Chaim Website Contact Us. Accessed 7 July 2015.
- ↑ B'Tselem Website Settlements. Accessed 7 July 2015.
- ↑ Charity Commission Website Charity Framework. Accessed 7 July 2015.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 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.
- ↑ UK Friends of Yeshivas Mekor Chaim accounts, year ended 2014-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200103).
- ↑ UK Friends of Yeshivas Mekor Chaim accounts, year ended 2018-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200103).
- ↑ UK Friends of Yeshivas Mekor Chaim accounts, year ended 2019-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200702).
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Register entry 1111779, full print (capture of 20210113) UK Government Web Archive.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 Charity Commission, UK Friends of Yeshivas Mekor Chaim (1111779): accounts and annual returns Register of Charities; latest accounts downloaded 16 October 2026 ("PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
- ↑ 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-26 charities, all retrieved on 16 October 2026 and checked for a "Regulatory alerts" notice; none showed one.
- ↑ 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-26 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-26 charity names returned zero results).
- ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Mekor Chaim' The Gazette, searched 16 October 2026.
- ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-1111779 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-26 screening covered 224 name strings: the 25 charity names and their other names, current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages, trustees, officers, examiners and other people and organisations named in the accounts and websites read for this batch, and the Companies House officers of the charitable companies; the only hits were generic words in company names (such as "Company Directors Limited") and surname-only matches, which were rejected; no person matched. Screened 16 October 2026.
- ↑ 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 "Mekor Chaim" Hansard, queried 16 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).