MIEDZYBOZ (MEDZHIBOZH):

By: Herman Rosenthal, S. Janovsky

Russian town in the government of Podolia; it has a total population of 5,100, including 3,400 Jews. Among the latter there are 1,009 artisans and 57 day-laborers. There are the usual charitable organizations. About 300 families were assisted in 1898 with fuel, and were given aid for Passover. A Jewish community existed at Miedzyboz as early as the sixteenth century, but in the course of the Cossack uprising under Chmielnicki it was destroyed. A few years later the census (1661) of the district ofPodolia showed that Miedzyboz had only a few Jewish houses, including two inns; these were exempted from taxation by privilege. During the war between Russia and Poland for the possession of Little Russia, the Jews of Miedzyboz were again put to the sword (1664). About 1740 the founder of Ḥasidism, Israel b. Eliezer Ba'al Shem-Ṭob, settled there, and began to disseminate his teachings.

H. R. S. J.