TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024
The trustees have pleasure in presenting their report together with the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2024
Reference and Administrative Information
Charity name
A Nação Hebraica (SCIO)
Charity no
SC052226
Address
33 Brighton Place, Edinburgh EH15 1LL
Current Trustees
Convener Treasurer Secretary
Structure, Governance and Management
Constitution
The Charity is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO). It was registered in its current legal form on 5 January 2023. It has a single tier structure and as such the trustees are the sole members of the charity.
Appointment of trustees
Trustees are elected at the annual general meeting which is held in January. There must be a minimum of three (3) and a maximum of five (5) trustees. Charity Trusteeship is open to any person aged 16 or over; and/or any individual who has been nominated for membership by an unincorporated organisation; and/or any corporate body, who subscribes to the purposes of the organisation and wishes to see them fulfilled.
Charitable purposes
To undertake scholarly research into the history and genealogy of the communities that make up the Western Sephardic diaspora in the Atlantic world; and to identify and make available original source documents, materials and research, and to publish these in databases or physical publications, in order to inform and educate a worldwide public. The area within which the organisation shall operate shall be worldwide.
Convener’s Report
Achievements and Performance
Following on from the publica[on of transcrip[ons of three years’ accounts in 2023, in FY2024 we published transcrip[ons of a further eight manuscript books and are transcribing three further books.
Completed:
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Account Book 5441-5442
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Account Book 5442-5443 (Par[al Damaged Book)
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Account Book 5445
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Account Book 5453
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Ascamot 5493-5535
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Minutes: The Elders 5493-5524
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Minutes: The Elders 5525-5543
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Livro dos Pleitos 5481-5531
Transcribing:
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Account Book 5454
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Minutes: The Elders 5545-5555
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Livro dos Pleitos 1772-1784
Other:
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Aboab Manuscript kept at Ets Haim Library, Amsterdam
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Van Rijn index of Portuguese Jews in 18th century notarial archives
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Balance sheet of the Dutch Old West Indian Company
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30 pages of the "Livro dos Homens" index to the Portuguese Inquisi[on Processos
Livro dos Pleitos. Chat-GPT 4 was successfully used to generate an AI-aided transla[on of the book, and dummy .pdf and flipbook edi[ons were produced. The results are promising enough to jus[fy scaling up to other transcribed manuscripts, and we are pursuing funding from the Na[onal Lojery Heritage Fund to put in place the technical infrastructure.
2024 Communications
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Contacted by , Oxford historian researching the Mendes da Costa family 2024-05-07. Provided with transcribed material that could help in his research
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Contacted by
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completed an M.A. in history at The Open University 2024-01, beginning
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PhD research at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam 2025-02.
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presented to Jewish Historical Society of England (JHSE) – New Generation
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Group (NGG) of early career historians 2024-04-07
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presented to Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain IJGSGBI 2024- 04-12 presented to International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies IIAJGSI Philadelphia 2024-08-19 Decisions of the Board of Thursday 8 August 2024 l. To eliminate future cost of website hosting for anacaohebraica.org, change ISP to 34sp.corn which offers no cost hosting for charities. 2. Approve and adopt the following financial control policy.. Budgets are approved by the Board annually or when changes are made. b. Spending is approved for budgeted items only. c. Treasurer and Convener are authorized to spend as budgeted. 3. A NaFao Hebraica need5 to become an institutional member of READ-COOP SCE to access the Transkribus tools needed to fulfi'll our mission. 4. Prepare a 5-year budget and fundraising plan. 2025 Communication Plans Presentation to IGRA 2025-02-17 Presentation to JTS date tbd Presentation to IAJGS 2025-08- 26 February 2025
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Financial review
Our main source of funding is in the form of grants from funding bodies and dona[ons from members of the public and from trustees.
We received £125.88 in dona[ons from trustees in the year to 31 December 2024. We did not ini[ate any fundraising from members of the public in FY 2024.
In July 2024 we changed our webhos[ng provider from 1and1 IONOS Ltd, to which we were paying £12.60 per month in hos[ng costs, to the Manchester-based hos[ng provider 34SP.com. As a registered charity, we were able to nego[ate free hos[ng from 34SP.com.
In September 2024 we applied to His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for recogni[on as a charity for tax purposes, specifically for registra[on for the purpose of Gio Aid. The applica[on was accepted, and we were issued the Charity Ref No. ST05901. As a requirement of the HMRC applica[on, we were asked to open a new bank account with a bank that is registered with the Financial Services Compensa[on Scheme (FSCS). HMRC would not accept Wise Ltd, as although Wise is authorised as an Electronic Money Ins[tu[on (EMI) by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), it is not a bank and is not FSCSregistered. We therefore opened an account with Zempler Bank, which fulfills this requirement. Our bank account details as of 31 December 2024 are:
WISE
GBP
Account holder: A Nação Hebraica (SCIO)
Wise's address: 56 Shoreditch High Street London E1 6JJ United Kingdom
6
EUR
Account holder: A Nação Hebraica (SCIO)
Wise's address: Avenue Louise 54, Room S52
Brussels
1050
Belgium
USD (for sending and receiving USD in the USA)
Account holder: A Nação Hebraica (SCIO)
Account type: Checking
Wise's address: 30 W. 26th Street, Sixth Floor
New York NY 10010
United States
USD (for sending and receiving USD from outside the USA)
Account holder: A Nação Hebraica (SCIO)
Wise's address: 30 W. 26th Street, Sixth Floor
New York NY 10010
United States
AUD
Account holder: A Nação Hebraica (SCIO)
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Wise's address: 36-38 Gipps Street
Collingwood 3066 Australia
PAYPAL
A Nação Hebraica (SCIO)
Link to receive payments:
NB: Does not operate like a bank, so no IBAN or SWIFT codes.
ZEMPLER BANK
Account Name: A Nacao Hebraica (SCIO)
Currency: GBP
Bank details: Zempler Bank Ltd., Cojons Centre, Cojons Lane, London SE1 2QG
At the same [me, we registered with the fundraising plauorms Donorbox and JustGiving, although we did not set up any campaigns through them in FY2024.
7 February 2025
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Statement of Receipts and Payments for the year ended 31 December 2024
| Funds | Funds | |
|---|---|---|
| Receipts | 2024 | 2023 |
| Donations | £125.88 | £61.41 |
| Grants | £0.00 | £0.00 |
| Fundraising | £0.00 | £0.00 |
| Bank interest | £0.00 | £0.00 |
| Bank verification credit | - | £0.01 |
| Card cashback | £0.06 | - |
| Total receipts | £125.94 | £61.42 |
| Payments | ||
| Cost of charitable | ||
| activities | £0.00 | £0.00 |
| Banking costs | £10.48 | £50.70 |
| Website hosting costs | £75.50 | - |
| Governance costs | £0.00 | £0.00 |
| Total payments | £85.98 | £54.30 |
| Surplus/(deficit) for the | ||
| year | £39.96 | £10.72 |
Statement of Balances - As at 31 December 2024
| Funds | Funds | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | |
| Opening cash at bank and in | ||
| hand | £10.72 | £0.00 |
| Surplus/(deficit) for the year | £39.96 | £10.72 |
| Closing cash at bank and in | ||
| hand | £50.68 | £10.72 |
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Notes to the accounts - for the year ended 31 December 2024
1 Basis of accounSng
These accounts have been prepared on the Receipts and Payments basis in accordance with the Chari[es & Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Chari[es Accounts (Scotland) Regula[ons 2006 (as amended)
2 Nature and purpose of funds
During the year the charity received no direct grants.
3 Related party transacSons
No remunera[on was paid to the trustees or any connected persons during the year.
4 DonaSons
The charity received cash dona[ons totalling £125.43 from the trustees to cover costs.
has paid the monthly cost of ZOOM mee[ngs for reviewing transcrip[ons and SCIO business mee[ngs at a cost of US$ 189.88 for 2024. indicates that he does not
wish to be reimbursed for this expense.
6 Cost of charitable acSviSes
There are no recorded costs of charitable ac[vi[es.
7 Governance costs
The independent examiner generously waived his fee for examining the accounts for the year ending 31 December 2023. The independent examiner’s fee for the present accounts (year ending 31 December 2024) will be reflected in the accounts for the year ending 31 December 2025.
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Independent examiner’s report to the Trustees of A Nação Hebraica (SCIO) for the year ended 31 December 2024
2024 which are set out on pages 8-10.
1 RespecSve responsibiliSes of trustees and examiner
The charity’s trustees are responsible for the prepara[on of the accounts in accordance with the terms of the Chari[es and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Chari[es Accounts (Scotland) Regula[ons 2006 (as amended). The charity trustees consider that the audit requirement of Regula[on 10(1) (d) of the 2006 Accounts Regula[ons does not apply. It is my responsibility to examine the financial review and accounts as required under sec[on 44(1) (c) of the Act and to state whether par[cular majers have come to my ajen[on.
2 Basis of independent examiner’s statement
My examina[on is carried out in accordance with Regula[on 11 of the 2006 Accounts Regula[ons. An examina[on includes a review of the accoun[ng records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes considera[on of transac[ons men[oned in the review and I am sa[sfied that the review is accurate and that A Nação Hebraica (SCIO) derives beneficial ownership of the contracts men[oned. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently I do not express an audit opinion on the view given by the accounts.
3 Independent examiner’s statement
In the course of my examina[on, no majer has come to my ajen[on which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements to keep accoun[ng records in accordance with Sec[on 44(1) (a) of the 2005 Act and Regula[on 4 of the 2006 Accounts Regula[ons to prepare accounts which accord with the accoun[ng records and comply with Regula[on 9 of the 2006 Accounts Regula[ons have not been met.
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