The Ukrainian Weekly today: changed, yet unchanged (10/23/83)

The Ukrainian Weekly today: changed, yet unchanged

When its first issued rolled of the presses on October 6, 1933, the (lower case "t") Ukrainian Weekly was a four-page tabloid-format English-language newspaper dedicated to the needs and interests of young Americans of Ukrainian descent. It was a one-editor operation.

Today, 50 years later, The (upper case "T") Ukrainian Weekly is a 16-page tabloid-format English-language newspaper dedicated to the needs and interests of Ukrainian Americans and Ukrainian Canadians of all ages. It is prepared by a three-person editorial staff.

Originally, the Weekly's flag (the nameplate atop the front page) indicated that it was a "supplement" to the Ukrainian-language Svoboda daily. Later this description changed to "section" and, later still, to "edition."

Today, these descriptive words are gone, since The Weekly - while indebted to its parent publication - has grown and, like every child, has let go of the apron strings and set out on its own.

During its 50 years of operation, The Weekly has undergone several changes in its outward appearance, as partially illustrated by the montage of flags on the left. Other design changes have produced a more modern layout and led to the use of more photographs.

A generation of Ukrainian Americans grew up and matured while reading The Weekly during its first half century. This generation did not, however, outgrow The Weekly, since The Weekly grew and matured along with them, shifting its focus from youth to all segments of the community. At the same time, The Weekly attracted readers among this generation's children and grandchildren - but only because certain things remained the same.

When the 18th Convention of the Ukrainian National Association decided in 1933 that it was about time for the younger American-born generation to have a newspaper of its own, it was in order to reach this generation, which included many non-Ukrainian-speaking members and persons who were not sufficiently fluent in Ukrainian to read and contribute to a Ukrainian-language newspaper.

Through this decision, the UNA was wisely acknowledging that knowledge of the Ukrainian language could not be the sole hallmark of Ukrainianism. What mattered, the UNA must have reasoned, was that a person consider himself Ukrainian and because of this kinship feel a responsibility to contribute to the development of Ukrainian community life.

Today, The Weekly continues to reach out to all Ukrainians, being fully cognizant of the fact that, like it or not, assimilation has already claimed many Ukrainians and will continue to do so. The reality is that fewer and fewer Ukrainians speak or read Ukrainian and preliminary analyses by demographers of the 1980 U.S. Census have revealed that less than one in five Ukrainians speaks the language.

The only way to keep these Ukrainians is to make them feel welcome and wanted within the Ukrainian community, and to speak to them - and urge them to respond - in the language they know best. The value of a contribution does not, after all, depend on the language in which it is communicated.

In 1933, the UNA realized that an English-language publication would be essential in disseminating the truth about Ukraine and Ukrainians among English-speaking America. This was especially critical at a time when famine was raging in Soviet-dominated Ukraine, while the world knew next to nothing about it or its millions of victims.

In 1983, The Weekly continues to spread the truth about Ukrainian-related matters to the English-speaking world through its news stories, editorials, commentaries and other special features, such as, for example, this year's special issue dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Great Famine.

The Weekly's first editor, Stephen Shumeyko, saw the newspaper's role as influencing its readers - American youth of Ukrainian descent - to become good and loyal Americans and worthy descendants of the freedom-loving Ukrainian nation. He sought to use The Weekly to "inculcate them with the idea that as Americans of Ukrainian descent they are duty-bound to help their kinsmen in foreign-occupied and oppressed Ukraine to win the national freedom for which they have been fighting and sacrificing for many centuries."

Mr. Shumeyko enumerated the goals of The Weekly as follows: to propagate principles of Americanism; to impart knowledge of Ukrainian culture; to act as a forum for views; to stress the importance of membership in Ukrainian organizations; to keep abreast of the latest developments in Ukrainian life abroad and in Ukraine; and to generally provide the type of information, inspiration and reading which readers cannot get elsewhere.

The current editors of The Weekly cannot improve upon this list of goals set by Mr. Shumeyko. It is their belief that they can only strive to continue fulfilling them. For, they know that continuing to serve the Ukrainian community in the name of the Ukrainian National Association and in the tradition established by The Weekly's first editor is the best they can do.

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