Mezhybozhe

Medzhybizh takes its name from its position between the Southern Bug and the Buzhok. At their meeting stands a stone fortress, begun in 1511 on the site of earlier defences. The town itself is recorded from the twelfth century and became an important stronghold of Podolia.

Fighting during the Cossack-Polish War reached Medzhybizh in 1648, 1649 and 1651. Its Jewish community, documented from 1511, later made the town a centre of religious life far beyond the region. Around 1740 Israel ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov and founder of Hasidism, settled here; he lived in Medzhybizh until his death in 1760. His grandson, Rabbi Boruch, was among the later Hasidic leaders associated with the town. His teaching and the presence of his followers made the town closely associated with the early Hasidic movement.