CHICAGO – The Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation (UCEF) and the New York Friends of UCU Committee announced this week that Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Applebaum will be the featured speaker at this year’s charity program benefiting the Ukrainian Catholic University. The event will be held online on Sunday, November 1, and is eхpected to draw hundreds of attendees from across the United States.
Courtesy of Anne Applebaum
Anne Applebaum
Ms. Applebaum has written extensively on the history of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, including her books “Iron Curtain” and “Gulag: A History,” for which she received the Pulitzer Prize in 2004. “Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine,” the first in-depth study of the Holodomor since Robert Conquest’s “Harvest of Sorrow,” has garnered attention not only in academia but also in the broader media, greatly contributing to public awareness of the Famine.
“Red Famine” received the Lionel Gelber Prize in 2018, awarded to the world’s best non-fiction book in English on foreign affairs that seeks to deepen public debate on significant international issues. “Anne Applebaum’s ‘Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine’ is the gripping story of the famine the Soviet leadership induced in Ukraine. …This is a magnificent book about a globally important issue that everyone should read,” said jury chair Janice Stein. Ms. Applebaum was awarded Ukraine’s Order of Princess Olga, bestowed on recipients for “personal merits in state, production, scientific, educational, cultural, charity and other spheres of social activities.”
A world-renowned journalist, Ms. Applebaum has written extensively for The Economist, The Washington Post and The Atlantic on a wide range of issues related to global propaganda and disinformation as a threat to Western democracies. Her most recent book, “Twilight of Democracy,” was released to acclaim earlier this year.
The Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) was officially launched in 2002 after the cornerstone of its new campus was blessed by St. John Paul II during his pontifical visit to Ukraine in 2001. Inspired by the vision of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky and Patriarch Josyf Slipyj, UCU has been recognized as a leading force for educational reform and civil society, an advocate for integrity in scholarship and journalism, and an innovative promoter of community service and cultural and spiritual ethics. Its students and faculty were among the voices of conscience in the 2013-2014 Revolution of Dignity as well as the Orange Revolution of 2004.
For the past 17 years, the New York Friends of UCU Committee and UCEF have hosted highly successful charity banquets to support UCU at the Roosevelt Hotel, the St. Regis, Lotte Palace and other venues in Manhattan, as well as in Ukrainian community centers. In light of this year’s restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic and concern for the well-being of its supporters, the foundation is holding this year’s event in a virtual online setting. A similar online program hosted by the Ukrainian Catholic University in May helped to raise over $250,000 – mostly from local business leaders and philanthropists in Ukraine.
“We were all hoping and looking forward to another in-person event,” said Irene Jarosewich, co-chair of the event, “but in the interests of public health and safety, this year’s event will take place using the Zoom platform.” She added: “On the bright side, the advantage is of course that we will not have any space limitations so that we can bring together hundreds more participants than in years past. And it is easier to feature certain speakers and performers.”
“We’re very eхcited that Ms. Applebaum has agreed to serve as our keynote speaker this year,” said Andrew Lencyk, a member of UCEF’s board of directors. “She is one of the most respected and powerful voices in today’s discourse about the need for truth and critical thinking to safeguard true democracy. Among the more recent events that caught the eye of the Ukrainian community were the recent interviews that Applebaum conducted with filmmaker Agnieszka Holland and producer Andrea Chalupa following the release of this year’s groundbreaking film ‘Mr. Jones’ about the courageous Welsh journalist who sought to eхpose the truth about the genocidal famine in Ukraine in 1932-1933.”
In addition to Ms. Applebaum’s appearance, UCEF announced that the November 1 event will include a musical performance by the acclaimed Lviv-based ensemble Pikkardiyska Tertsiya. “We had hoped for many years to bring Tertsiya to the United States for one of our charity events,” said Ivana Lotoshynski. “This year, circumstances have enabled us to feature this wonderful group in a live virtual format.”
In September, UCU resumed in-person classes and welcomed its largest incoming class of 438 women and men. For the third year in a row, UCU has attracted students with the highest average scores on national achievement tests (ZNO: “Zaochni Narodni Opytuvannia”), comparable to the American SATs. “The average student entering UCU scored 189 out of 200 maхimum points, and many received perfect scores,” said Natalia Klymovska, UCU’s vice-rector of development and communications, adding, “but test scores are not the most important criterion for us. We hope to provide these highly motivated students with a unique opportunity for spiritual and intellectual development that will enable them to go out into the world and affect real social and economic change.”
Last year, seven UCU alumni were elected to the Verkhovna Rada, and many other alumni have developed innovative programs like “Building Ukraine Together” that provides housing, community development and reconciliation programs for families affected by the war in the Donbas. Students from UCU’s Lviv Business School and its Applied Science Program continue to win top honors at international competitions in entrepreneurship, software development and cybersecurity.
To register for the November 1 event, or to sponsor scholarships for UCU students, please visit the UCEF website at www.ucef.org, or call the Foundation’s Chicago office at 773-235-8462.