Yeshivas Ohel Shimon Trust
Clapton trust paying all grants to the Erlau yeshiva in Israel
| Yeshivas Ohel Shimon Trust
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Other |
| Founded | 1984-06-01 (registered) |
| Registration ID | Registered charity 289483 |
| Headquarters | 37 Moresby Road, London, E5 9LE |
| Area served | Israel |
Yeshivas Ohel Shimon Trust is a UK registered charity (no. 289483). According to the UK Charity Commission the goal of the charity is to make grants to the 'Erlau Institutions'. The Erlau is a Jewish Haredi community of Hungarian origin. Although the Charity Commission states that the charity operates in Israel, an Erlau community exists in the illegal settlement of Beitar Illit in the occupied West Bank.[1] [2]
History
The organisation became a registered charity in 1984.
Objects and activities
The charity's registered objects read: "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."[3]
The register describes its activities as: "Making grants to the Erlau Institutions."[3]
Register classifications: Religious Activities.[3]
Areas of operation recorded on the register: Israel.[3]
Finances and Funding
Between 2010 and 2014 the charity spent £1,684,664.
Latest figures (Charity Commission register)
| Financial year end | Income | Expenditure |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-03-31 | £460,997 | £460,441 |
| 2022-03-31 | £414,338 | £406,486 |
| 2023-03-31 | £327,690 | £315,292 |
| 2024-03-31 | £305,131 | £309,099 |
| 2025-03-31 | £363,146 | £369,964 |
Source: register annual-return history.[3]
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[4]
- Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2015[5]
- Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2016[6]
- Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2017[7]
- Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2018[8]
People
Board of Directors circa July 2015
D. Spitzer | Michael Ciment | Moshe Sofer
Current trustees (Charity Commission register, October 2026)
Current trustees, with other charities on which the same register trustee ID appears:[3]
| Trustee | Appointed | Chair | Other trusteeships |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michael Ciment | not recorded | — | |
| Samuel Berkovitz | 2025-05-05 | Kehal Charedim Trust (1098484); Keren Ezras Nissuin Trust (1012846) | |
| Samuel Pappenheim | 2025-05-20 | — |
Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)
| Capture date | Trustees listed | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-01-16 | Moshe Sofer; Michael Ciment; Daniel SPITZER – also trustee of Nadenia Limited | [9] |
Funding in Israel
- FY2025 grants £348,000; "All grant were given to Yeshivas Ohel Shimon of Erlau - Israel" (PDF p.9).[10]
Israeli partners
Yeshivas Ohel Shimon of Erlau (Ohel Shimon – Erloy, association 580007433), 1–5 Yotam Street, Jerusalem.[11]
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 Erlau yeshiva is listed at Yotam Street, Jerusalem; the district was not verified from a fetched source.[11] | Not established – Jerusalem, district not verified |
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;[12] 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.[13][14][15][16] 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.[17]
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).[18] No entry was found on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register (API name searches returned zero results).[19]
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.[20]
Grants recorded by 360Giving
No grants received or made by this charity are recorded in 360Giving data.[21]
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.[22]
Land and property
The register records that the charity does not own or lease land or property.[3] No title registers were purchased; the HM Land Registry interactive search blocked automated access.[23]
Parliament
Hansard exact-phrase searches for "Ohel Shimon" returned 0 contributions in total.[24]
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:
- 5 Windus Road
- London
- N16 6UT
- Phone: 020 8880 8910
Notes
- ↑ Beitar Illit Website Unity among the members of the municipality. Accessed 6 July 2015.
- ↑ B'Tselem Website Israel declares some 380 hectares in West Bank as state land. Accessed 6 July 2015.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 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), extract dated 14 October 2026.
- ↑ The Yeshivas Ohel Shimon Trust accounts, year ended 2014-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20190903).
- ↑ The Yeshivas Ohel Shimon Trust accounts, year ended 2015-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20190903).
- ↑ The Yeshivas Ohel Shimon Trust accounts, year ended 2016-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20190903).
- ↑ The Yeshivas Ohel Shimon Trust accounts, year ended 2017-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20190903).
- ↑ The Yeshivas Ohel Shimon Trust accounts, year ended 2018-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20190903).
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Register entry 289483, full print (capture of 20210116) UK Government Web Archive.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Charity Commission, The Yeshivas Ohel Shimon Trust (289483): accounts and annual returns Register of Charities; latest accounts downloaded 15 October 2026 ("PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Torah Index, Ohel Shimon – Erloy torahindex.com, viewed 15 October 2026 (address "1-5 Yotam St.", Jerusalem 91001; association number 580007433).
- ↑ 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-9 charities, all retrieved successfully on 15 October 2026 and checked for a "Regulatory alerts" section; none of the 25 pages showed an alert.
- ↑ 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), both retrieved 15 October 2026.
- ↑ 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").
- ↑ 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-9 charity names and their other 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 batch-9 charity name returned zero results; a control search returned results normally).
- ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Ohel Shimon' The Gazette, searched 15 October 2026.
- ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-289483 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-9 screening covered 296 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 trustees, officers, lenders, donor companies, subsidiaries and grant recipients named in the accounts read for this batch (including Bextor Estates Ltd, Newmarston Ltd, PWorld.UK Ltd and Gateway Sight Ltd and their directors); matching on surname plus forename tokens, reviewed manually. No forename-and-surname candidate arose; all candidates were surname-only coincidences or generic word overlaps (for example "Trust" or "Israel"); 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 "Ohel Shimon" Hansard, queried 15 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).