The Benjamin Winegarten Charitable Trust
Prestwich family trust with £1.9 million in cash that names none of its grantees
| The Benjamin Winegarten Charitable Trust
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Other |
| Founded | 1976-06-18 (registered) |
| Registration ID | Registered charity 271442 |
| Headquarters | Prestwich M25 |
| Area served | Throughout London, Israel |
The Benjamin Winegarten Charitable Trust was registered on 18 June 1976 under a trust deed of 12 March 1976; register areas are London and Israel.[1][2] Its trustees are Simon Winegarten, Miriam Schwab and Leah Chontow, all appointed in 2019, with a principal address in Prestwich M25 – the same address as the Yatziv Trust (PDF p.3).[1][2] It makes grants to institutions of religious education, religious organisations and poverty charities, and to individuals on referral (PDF p.3). In the year to 5 April 2025 income was £194,025 (donations £120,000, investment income £74,025), grants to institutions £197,702 and funds £2,347,902, including cash of £1,932,439 (PDF p.6, 8, 10).[2]
Objects and activities
The charity's registered objects read: "TOWARDS OR IN FURTHERANCE OR FOR THE BENEFIT OF SUCH ONE OR MORE CHARITIES CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS OR CHARITABLE PURPOSES IN ANY PART OF THE WORLD IN SUCH SHARES AND IN SUCH MANNER AS THE TRUSTEES IN THEIR ABSOLUTE DISCRETION MAY FROM TIME TO TIME DETERMINE."[1]
The register describes its activities as: "relief of poverty, advancement of religion and religious education"[1]
Register classifications: Religious Activities.[1]
Areas of operation recorded on the register: Throughout London, Israel.[1]
Trustees
Current trustees, with other charities on which the same register trustee ID appears:[1]
| Trustee | Appointed | Chair | Other trusteeships |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miriam Schwab | 2019-02-12 | J & M Schwab Charitable Trust (1195747) | |
| Leah Chontow | 2019-02-12 | — | |
| Simon Winegarten | 2019-02-12 | Yatziv Trust (1130009) |
Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)
| Capture date | Trustees listed | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-01-07 | Simon Winegarten (from 12 February 2019) – also trustee of Yatziv Trust; Miriam Schwab (from 12 February 2019); Esther Winegarten; Leah Chontow (from 12 February 2019) | [3] |
Simon Winegarten is also a register trustee of the Yatziv Trust (1130009); Miriam Schwab of J & M Schwab Charitable Trust.[1]
Finances
| Financial year end | Income | Expenditure |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-04-05 | £348,232 | £209,237 |
| 2022-04-05 | £235,479 | £205,080 |
| 2023-04-05 | £163,705 | £92,378 |
| 2024-04-05 | £197,584 | £205,286 |
| 2025-04-05 | £194,025 | £198,852 |
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 05/04/2015[4]
- Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2016[5]
- Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2017[6]
- Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2018[7]
- Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2019[8]
Funding in Israel
- FY2025 grants to institutions £197,702 (2024: £204,103); the accounts name no recipients and the accounts do not mention Israel (PDF p.8).[2] Israel appears only as a register area of operation.[1]
Israeli partners
Not 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.
| Finding | Confidence |
|---|---|
| No place 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;[9] 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.[10][11][12][13] 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.[14]
- No grantees named. Grants of £197,702 to institutions are not broken down by recipient (PDF p.8).[2]
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).[15] No entry was found on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register (API name searches returned zero results).[16]
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.[17]
Grants recorded by 360Giving
No grants received or made by this charity are recorded in 360Giving data.[18]
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.[19]
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.[20] Candidate titles and addresses (CCOD dataset and register/accounts data):[21]
- Freehold land and property £140,000 (tangible fixed assets); rents received £40,505; addresses not stated – Accounts (PDF p.9–10) (source: [2])
Parliament
Hansard exact-phrase searches for "Benjamin Winegarten Charitable Trust", "Winegarten Charitable" returned 0 contributions in total.[22]
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".[3]
See also
External links
- No current official website.
Notes
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 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.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 Charity Commission, The Benjamin Winegarten Charitable Trust (271442): accounts and annual returns Register of Charities; latest accounts downloaded 15 October 2026 ("PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Register entry 271442, full print (capture of 20210107) UK Government Web Archive.
- ↑ The Benjamin Winegarten Charitable Trust accounts, year ended 2015-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
- ↑ The Benjamin Winegarten Charitable Trust accounts, year ended 2016-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
- ↑ The Benjamin Winegarten Charitable Trust accounts, year ended 2017-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
- ↑ The Benjamin Winegarten Charitable Trust accounts, year ended 2018-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
- ↑ The Benjamin Winegarten Charitable Trust accounts, year ended 2019-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
- ↑ 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-13 charities, all retrieved successfully on 15 October 2026 and checked for a "Regulatory alerts" section; none was shown for any of them. The 22 registered charities showed "Charity reporting is up to date (on time)"; Hatzolas Chasanim Ltd, Trumfold Limited and The Naaman Trust showed "Removed charity".
- ↑ 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-13 charity names found no matching Scottish registration.
- ↑ Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, Register of charities search API CCNI, searched 15 October 2026 (keyword searches for each of the 25 batch-13 charity names returned zero results, except "J O Charitable", which returned only unrelated Northern Irish charities).
- ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Winegarten Charitable Trust' The Gazette, searched 15 October 2026.
- ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-271442 360Giving, queried 15 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-13 screening covered 285 name strings: the 25 charity names, current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages, Companies House officers of the six charitable companies (including the removed Hatzolas Chasanim Ltd and Trumfold Limited), related companies named in the accounts (Cromwell Corporate Protector Limited, Salmino Limited, Bullion Properties Limited, Crewpride Limited, Wilkincroft Ltd and others), and trustees, examiners, donors and grant recipients named in the accounts and fetched partner pages 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", "Limited", "Ltd", "Foundation") and surname-only coincidences (Weiss, Friedman, Kish, Silver, James, Seal, Potash); lists downloaded 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.
- ↑ HM Land Registry, UK companies that own property in England and Wales (CCOD) and Overseas companies that own property in England and Wales (OCOD) full extracts, October 2026 release, matched on charitable company numbers, registered names and the names and numbers of subsidiaries named in the accounts; title numbers listed are candidates only – no title registers were purchased.
- ↑ UK Parliament, Hansard search API: contributions matching the exact phrase "Winegarten Charitable Trust" Hansard, queried 15 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).