Velyki Mezhyrichi

Velyki Mezhyrichi
Великі Межирічі
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Coat of arms
Velyki Mezhyrichi is located in Rivne Oblast
Velyki Mezhyrichi
Velyki Mezhyrichi
Location within Rivne Oblast
Velyki Mezhyrichi is located in Ukraine
Velyki Mezhyrichi
Velyki Mezhyrichi
Location within Ukraine
Coordinates: 50°39′24″N 26°51′53″E / 50.65667°N 26.86472°E / 50.65667; 26.86472
Country Ukraine
OblastRivne Oblast
Raion Rivne Raion
HromadaVelyki Mezhyrichi rural hromada
Established1544
Area
 • Total
5,441 km2 (2,101 sq mi)
Population
 • Total
2,192
 • Density0.4029/km2 (1.043/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+2 (EET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+3 (EEST)
Postal code
34725
Area code+380 3651
Websiteсело Великі Межирічі/райцентр Корець/облцентр Рівне (Ukrainian)

Mezhirichi (Ukrainian: Вели́кі Межи́річі, romanized: Velyki Mezhyrichi; Polish: Wielki Międzyrzecz) is a village in western Ukraine, in the Rivne Raion of Rivne Oblast, but was formerly administered within the Korets Raion. It is located 21 kilometres (13 mi) west of Korets and 43 kilometres (27 mi) east of Rivne. Local government is administered by Velykomezhyritska village council.

Names

Mezhirichi is also known as Polish: Międzyrzec Korecki, Yiddish: מעזריטש, romanized: Mezritsh, Hebrew: מזריטש גדול, romanized: Mezritsh Gadol.

Jewish life in Mezhirichi

Memorial at the execution site of the Jews of the town.

Undoubtedly the most significant event in the Jewish community of Mezhirichi was the arrival there of the Maggid, Rabbi Dov Ber. After the death of the founder of Hasidism, the Baal Shem Tov, in 1761, Rabbi Dov Ber became the next leader of the movement. He moved to Rivne, and later to Mezhrichi, where he remained for the rest of his life. Mezhrichi rapidly became a magnet and place of pilgrimage for the chasidim. The location of Mezhrichi, nearer to Poland and White Russia than the Baal Shem Tov's seat in Medzhybizh, acted as a spur to the fledgling chasidic movement.

There is a Yizkor book memorializing the Jewish community that lived in the town prior to the Holocaust.

History

Around 15,000 BC, a primeval community in Mezhirich featured dwellings built from mammoth bones, draped with animal hides, hearths filled with charred remnants, and ground surfaces stained with reddish pigments—reflecting early ingenuity and shared living practices.

The first written record of the village dates from 1544. However, archaeologists found in the area a settlement of Bronze Age and the Roman coins of II century AD.

The Magdeburg rights were provided for the village Mezhyrichi by the King of Poland Sigismund III Vasa in 1605. And in 1702 the owner of the village, Jerzy Lubomirski, started to build a stone church of St. Anthony in the village, which took 25 years to erect. The church was built on the place of an old wooden church, which had been erected by means of by Konstantine Ostrogski and which burned down in 1601.

Mezhyrichi was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569, the Russian Empire from 1793, and independent Poland from 1921 to 1939.

On 17 September 1939 Red Army units captured Mezhyrichi from Second Polish Republic, as a result of which the village was annexed into the Soviet Union as part of the Ukrainian SSR.

During WWII German forces occupied the town on July 6, 1941, established a Judenrat, and forced Jews into labor. Massacres took place during Sukkot in 1941 and Shavuot in 1942. About 1,000 surviving Jews were confined to a ghetto and murdered on September 26, 1942; few escaped. No Jews remained after the war.

The 1992 memorial at Tsegelny Ravine, where about 3,000 Jews were murdered during the German occupation, stands at the killing site in Dyven village near Nevirkiv and Velyki Mezhyrichi. Enclosed by a stone fence with a Magen David gate and a large menorah.

Notable landmarks

Monuments of architecture national importance in the Rivne region is the stone church of St. Anthony (N - 1503 0) and Peter and Paul Church (wooden) (N – 1505 0) in the village Velyki Mezhyrichi.

Notable people from Mezhirichi

References

  1. ↑ Великомежиріцька сільська рада (in Ukrainian)
  2. ↑ "The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe". encyclopedia.yivo.org. Retrieved 2026-11-05.
  3. ↑ Alayon, Benzion H. (1955). Meziriṭsh gadol be-vinyana uve-ḥurbana. ʼIrgun ʻole Meziriṭsh be-Yiśraʼel, Taf Shin Ṭet Ṿaṿ (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv: בהוצאת אירגון עולי מז׳יריטש בישראל. OCLC 35177767.
  4. ↑ Lee Palmer, Allison (2008). Historical Dictionary of Architecture - p 216. The Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 9780810862838.
  5. ↑ "The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe". encyclopedia.yivo.org. Retrieved 2026-11-05.
  6. ↑ "Війна, про яку домовилися у Москві: Радянсько-польська війна 1939 року. Частина II". 2026-09-25. Retrieved 2026-09-25.
  7. ↑ "The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe". encyclopedia.yivo.org. Retrieved 2026-11-05.
  8. ↑ "Mezirich, Ukraine". www.jewishgen.org. Retrieved 2026-11-05.
  9. ↑ "Something went wrong..." cja.huji.ac.il. Retrieved 2026-11-05.
  10. ↑ "Center for Jewish Art". cja.huji.ac.il. Retrieved 2026-11-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ↑ Пам'ятки архітектури національного значення Рівненської області (in Ukrainian)