Yeshiva Gedola Zichron Michoel
Removed trust for Orthodox religious education in Israel whose objects named Kiryat Sefer (Modi'in Illit), a West Bank settlement
| Yeshiva Gedola Zichron Michoel
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Other (removed) |
| Founded | 2003-09-18 (registered) |
| Dissolved | 2018-01-22 (removed from the register: Ceased to exist) |
| Registration ID | Registered charity 1099520 |
| Area served | Israel |
Yeshiva Gedola Zichron Michoel is a UK registered charity (no. 1099520). According to the UK Charity Commission the object of the charity is:
- THE ADVANCEMENT OF ORTHODOX JEWISH RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN ANY PART OF THE WORLD AND IN PARTICULAR IN THE AREAS IN ISRAEL KNOWN AS ZICHRON YAAKOV, TEL AVIV, BNEI BRAK AND KIRYAT SEFER[1]
Kiryat Sefer, more generally known as Modi'in Illit, is an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.[2]
History
The organisation became a registered charity in 2003.[1]
Objects and activities
The charity's registered objects read: "THE ADVANCEMENT OF ORTHODOX JEWISH RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN ANY PART OF THE WORLD AND IN PARTICULAR IN THE AREAS IN ISRAEL KNOWN AS ZICHRON YAAKOV, TEL AVIV, BNEI BRAK AND KIRYAT SEFER"[3]
The register describes its activities as: "To pursue the objects of the charity with all the resources available to the charity."[3]
Register classifications: Education/training.[3]
Areas of operation recorded on the register: Israel.[3]
Finances and Funding
Between 2010 and 2014 the charity spent £1,010,858.[4]
Latest figures (Charity Commission register)
| Financial year end | Income | Expenditure |
|---|---|---|
| 2014-03-31 | £133,150 | £159,146 |
| 2015-03-31 | £130,450 | £130,050 |
| 2016-03-31 | £109,175 | £109,584 |
Source: register annual-return history.[3]
People
Board of Directors circa July 2015
Rabbi D. Kahn | Saloman Levy
Funding in Israel
- No accounts were found, so spending in Israel is not known; Israel was the only register area.[3]
Israeli partners
Not known.[3]
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 registered objects name Kiryat Sefer, which Peace Now lists as an additional name of the West Bank settlement of Modi'in Illit.[3][5] | High |
| Whether any funds were spent there is not known, as no accounts were found.[3] | Not established |
Support for the IDF: No IDF or military funding is recorded; no accounts were found.[3]
Controversies and regulatory action
- No Charity Commission inquiry naming this charity was found; it is not named in the 2025–2026 cheque-cashing class-inquiry announcements or statement of results, and the charities in the August 2026 settlements class inquiry have not been named.[6][7][8][9][10] The register shows it as removed, giving the reason "Ceased to exist".[11]
- Settlement named in the objects. The charity's registered objects singled out Kiryat Sefer, an alternative name for the settlement of Modi'in Illit.[3][5]
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).[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.[14]
Grants recorded by 360Giving
No grants received or made by this charity are recorded in 360Giving data.[15]
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.[16]
Land and property
The register extract does not record whether the charity owned or leased land or property (the field is blank for this removed charity).[3] No title registers were purchased; the HM Land Registry interactive search blocked automated access.[17]
Parliament
Hansard exact-phrase searches for "Yeshiva Gedola Zichron Michoel", "Zichron Michoel" returned 0 contributions in total.[18]
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 "Removed charity" and "Other regulators: not shown".[19]
Contact
Address circa July 2015:
- Mrs Shula Masher
- 6 Bispham Grove
- Salford
- M7 4DL
- Email: howard@hasaccountants.co.uk
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Charity Commission Website Charity Framework. Accessed 6 July 2015.
- ↑ B'Tselem Website 28 Feb. 07: Illegal construction approved in the Modi'in Illit settlement. Accessed 4 July 2015.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 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.
- ↑ Charity Commission Website Charity Overview. Accessed 6 July 2015.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Peace Now, Modi'in Ilit Settlement Watch, viewed 16 October 2026 (type: settlement; established 1996; 83,356 residents; ultra-Orthodox; additional name Kiryat Sefer).
- ↑ 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").
- ↑ Charity Commission, Register of Charities, full-print pages for the removed charities 1099520 (organisation 4001386), 1109035 (organisation 4014995), 1178222 (organisation 5118257) and 801772, retrieved 16 October 2026 (each shows "Removed (Ceased to exist)").
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 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).
- ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Zichron Michoel' The Gazette, searched 16 October 2026.
- ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-1099520 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-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.
- ↑ 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 "Zichron Michoel" Hansard, queried 16 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).
- ↑ Register entry 1099520, full print (capture of 20210116) UK Government Web Archive.