October 6, 1933. That was the date the first issue of this English-language newspaper rolled off the presses in Jersey City, N.J. It was a historic milestone in our community that resulted from an insightful, enlightened and far-reaching decision of the Ukrainian National Association to offer this fraternal benefit in addition to the Ukrainian-language daily newspaper Svoboda.
The driving force behind that move was the UNA’s Supreme Assembly (today known as the General Assembly), which had been charged by the UNA’s 18th Convention held in May 1933 to look into the possibility of publishing an English-language periodical geared toward the generations of Ukrainians born in the United States. Convened for a special meeting that July, the Supreme Assembly acted expeditiously and decided that the UNA would begin publication of an English-language supplement to Svoboda that would be called The Ukrainian Weekly.
Together, these two newspapers are among the most significant contributions that their publisher, the UNA, has made not only to its members but to the entire Ukrainian nation – both here in the diaspora and in Ukraine. Indeed, alongside Svoboda, The Ukrainian Weekly told the story of the Holodomor raging in Ukraine and spoke out against U.S. recognition of the USSR. It focused on the plight of refugees and displaced persons after World War II, and it was among the leaders of the campaign to erect a monument to Taras Shevchenko in Washington and the drive to establish chairs of Ukrainian studies at one of our country’s pre-eminent universities, Harvard. Our newspaper led the charge in advocating the establishment of the U.S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine.
The Weekly gave voice to the oppressed Ukrainian nation, in keeping with its illustrious first editor’s, Stephen Shumeyko’s, stated belief that Americans of Ukrainian descent “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 so many years.” It was The Ukrainian Weekly that oftentimes carried the first news in English and translations of documents from the human and national rights movement in Ukraine. The Weekly’s Ukrainian American journalists were on the ground in Ukraine already in January 1991 – even before the declaration of the independence of Ukraine on August 24 of that momentous year. Moreover, The Weekly was the first to publish an English-language translation of that historic document. Since then, of course, we have continued to provide coverage of major developments from Ukraine, in addition to news from here in the United States, Canada and the diaspora as a whole.
The Weekly has now published approximately 4,500 issues since 1933. (You can read all of them at www.ukrweekly.com in the digital archives section of our website.)
What’s particularly notable as we mark yet another anniversary – our 87th – is that The Ukrainian Weekly has not skipped a beat since its founding in 1933. Not even this year, while we’re in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. As we write these words, we are in week No. 28 of working remotely because of the coronavirus. The good news is that our staff continues to work hard to produce the newspaper on deadline each and every week, albeit working from our homes.
It’s been a tough year for all of us, and we thank you, dear subscribers, for your continuing support. We also thank our benefactors, whose generous donations go a long way toward helping our newspapers continue their mission, and our advertisers whose advertising dollars are key to the bottom line. But there is yet another group of partners who deserve special recognition: all the community activists who submit stories and photos to The Weekly and have continued doing so despite the pandemic. As we celebrate our 87th anniversary, we thank you all!