The sponsor of the British Museum's exhibition on the Bayeux Tapestry has provided funding for a community center in Ephrath, which is an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank and is under UK sanctions.
Igor Tulchinsky, a billionaire born in Belarus who supported the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition as part of a deal valued at 5 million pounds sterling ($6.75 million USD), presented the 'therapeutic yurt' at the Mondlak Center in Ephrath in November 2025 alongside the settlement's mayor, Dovi Shefler.
This yurt is part of the 'community resilience center,' which serves Gush Etzion—a group of illegal Israeli settlements located 12 km southeast of Jerusalem—and Tulchinsky was identified as its main sponsor.
According to a post on the Ephrath Development Fund's Instagram page, Tulchinsky dedicated the institution to 'the brave soldiers of Israel and their families' during his visit to the settlement in November 2025. At the opening, Tulchinsky referred to the yurt as the 'internal Iron Dome of Israel.'
Ephrath is built on land taken from four Palestinian villages, where about 12,000 Israeli settlers reside, and it is considered the capital of Gush Etzion—an extensive cluster of settlements expanding towards nearby Bethlehem.
The Mondlak Center is a division of the Ephrath Development Fund, a non-profit organization that positions itself as 'dedicated to promoting the social, cultural, and physical development of Ephrath.' According to the Ephrath Development Fund website, there are three levels of partnership for donors and sponsors, with the highest level, 'Vision Partner,' costing over $50,000 and offering opportunities for 'strategic planning.' The fund also advertises support for 'pioneer families in Givat HaEitam,' referring to settlers creating the highly controversial hillside development known as 'E-2,' which, according to world activists, could cut off Bethlehem from the southern West Bank and turn the city into a ghetto.
The nature and scale of Tulchinsky's support, whether financial or otherwise, for the community center remain unclear, and Middle East Eye did not receive a response to requests for comment addressed to his investment firm, WorldQuant.
When MEE reached out for comments, the Ephrath Development Fund confirmed that Tulchinsky is a donor but stated that he did so through a separate organization, which the fund declined to name.
An image of Tulchinsky attending the opening of the therapeutic yurt is posted on the fund's fundraising page on its website.