 It is the birthplace of Ukrainian chess grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk, Israel Jacob Kligler, who led the effort of eradicating malaria in Mandatory Palestine, and Israeli politician Pinhas Lavon.The city was first mentioned in 1340 as a village in the Polish powiat (county) of Terebovlia.With time it grew to become a town within the Land of Halicz, itself part of Podole Voivodeship of Poland and then the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.