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Jewish charity sector collects £750m a year

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The Jewish charity sector in the UK has an annual income of up to three quarters of a billion pounds a year, according to a new national online database.

There are 1,753 Jewish charities and foundations with a combined income of £739 million, according to a search of the Charity Trends site which has been launched by the Charities Aid Foundation.

The top Jewish charities in terms of voluntary income (excluding fees and investments) were Jewish Care with £24.2 million in 2010; the United Synagogue, £18.2 million; UJIA, £12.6 million; and United Talmudical Associates (UTA), a little-known charity serving the strictly Orthodox sector with £11.3 million.

The database, which enables a search of more than 160,000 registered charities, should not be taken as comprehensive, however. For example, a search of the top 100 Jewish charities by voluntary income failed to include Norwood, which raised donations of more than £10 million, according to its last accounts.

Also the database includes both trusts, which make grants, and service organisations, which receive them, so some money will inevitably counted twice.

The little-known United Talmudical Associates have an income of £11.3m

There are 1,478 listed charities funding work in Israel, which includes Christian or national organisations like Oxfam or the British Council, as well as prominent Jewish trusts such as the Pears Foundation or Naim Dangoor's Exilarch Foundation.

The database reveals the extent of strictly Orthodox charities serving the fastest growing segment of the Jewish population, such as the UTA or the Salford-based Asser Bishvil Foundation, which enjoyed an income of £6.7 million.

It also throws light on foundations which until now have not been household names within the Jewish community, such as the Bogolyubov Foundation linked to the Ukrainian-born philanthropist Gennadiy Bogolyubov.

According to its website, its mission is to partner God in "bringing the world to a state of perfection" and it had an income of £8.5 million in 2009.

Its causes range from supporting excavation and conservation work at the Western Wall in Jerusalem to helping provide family simchahs for some of the 4,000 Lubavitch emissaries around the world.

The Stamford Hill-based United Talmudical Associates , which distributes funds from a charity voucher scheme, says its main aim is to support local schools and causes although its accounts give little detail.

Another Stamford Hill-based charity, the Delapage Foundation, generated an income of more than £18 million in 2008.

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