LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (01/11/98)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Congrats on reply to Estocin letter

Dear Editor:

I would like to thank Alla Lehka Heretz for her well-structured reply to Andrew F. Estocin's letter of October 26 and must provide some clarification to Ms. Heretz assertion that Mr. Estocin is promoting his own agenda.

Mr. Estocin is the son of the Rev. Frank Estocin, who is the consistory secretary of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. in South Bound Brook, N.J. The Rev. Estocin is at the center of a growing controversy as to the direction the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. should take in relation to recent pronouncements in Odesa by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

There is a definite movement by a large number of clergy within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. to remove "Ukrainian" from "Ukrainian Orthodox Church." There is a definite movement to create a "non-ethnic" and "non-nationalistic" pan-American Orthodox Church. And as the Rev. Estocin stated in a recent correspondence, "Putting it bluntly, the ship sails with the ecumenical patriarch (Bartholomew). If that seems not to fit the agenda of some, then those who feel bound in conscience should extricate themselves from Constantinople and seek spiritual and administrative solace (elsewhere)."

From this it should be obvious whose agenda young Andrew is promoting and why his columns appear in the Ukrainian Orthodox Word.

Victor Babanskyj
Watchung, N.J.

About Ukrainians' "preoccupation"

Dear Editor:

Prof. Roman Koropeckyj (October 26) must be living in a vacuum of academic isolation, seclusion and new campus politics at UCLA. Not only is he accusing Dr. Myron Kuropas unjustly; he is publicly acknowledging that Ukrainians are indeed "genetically anti-Semitic" as charged by some Jewish Americans.

I don't think the good professor knows what he is talking about; and neither do Michael Slotznick and Leonard Grossman (September 21).

How do they and he accuse any Ukrainian American of "preoccupation" with Jews; especially now. Had my father been less preoccupied with them during World War II fewer of them would be alive today. Yet - not once have I ever heard a word of thanks from any of them; only a constant diatribe of accusations. The truth is, it is extremely difficult to placate or accommodate the American Jewish community, so why bother?

The AJC's "letter of displeasure" is meant to divide our community and to silence Dr. Kuropas. If they eventually get their way, who will the AJC target next?

Finally, after publishing Prof. Koropeckyj's letter you are qualifying that he is assistant professor of Slavic languages at UCLA. So, what? Is this supposed to add to his credibility somehow? Especially in slandering Dr. Kuropas' name and reputation?

Shame on you, Ukrainian Weekly!

If it is your editorial policy to leave titles and degrees out of "letters to the editor" columns, please do stick to protocol.

I have noted, however, that you very frequently appear to qualify certain writers - as if they required a special introduction. This does, indeed, seem quite discriminatory and contradictory. You published my letter also in defense of Dr. Kuropas in an earlier Weekly - but did not even bother to add my title (D.D.S.).

If an assistant professor (degrading Dr. Kuropas unjustly) merits extra priviledges of clarification - so do I. I am, after all, not an assistant janitor nor an illiterate country bumpkin. I am not arguing your right to publish dissenting viewpoints, but rather your discriminatory personal credibility ascribed to some writers.

I am most disappointed and appalled by such policy on your part.

Andrew Senkowsky, D.D.S.
Van Etten, N.Y.

Editor's note: Letter writers are identified if their credentials have bearing on a topic or if they specifically ask to be identified for readers. We have noted and heeded Dr. Senkowsky's request.

A thank you from Poland

Dear Editor:

I want to extend my deep appreciation to St. Jude Medical S.C. Inc. in St. Paul and to Lauren Huebner-Hartel of Berwyn, Pa., for donating a St. Jude Mitral Valve No. 29 M to replace the diseased valve of my sister-in-law, Hanna Vasylivna Boberski, a 53-year-old woman from the village of Mykulychyn, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Ukraine.

This valve's list price is $4,565 (U.S.). It will be placed inside Mrs. Boberski's heart, replacing her diseased mitral valve, by Dr. Dmytro E. Babliak, chief of the Cardiosurgical Center at the Medical University in Lviv.

St. Jude Medical S.C. Inc. produced the first bileaflet heart valve, and it is the best such valve in the world. It was originally designed by Dr. C. Walton Lillehei of Minneapolis, and was the first to replace a patient's diseased heart valve in 1977.

This is not the first time that St. Jude Medical has helped by donating such a valve to patients in Ukraine. Through the efforts of Renata M. Sharan-Olearchyk, they have already donated four cardiac valves. The Ukrainian community and physicians in the U.S. - especially cardiologists and cardiac surgeons - should be appreciative of this humanitarian life-saving gift and should support this exceptionally generous and merciful company.

Bohdan Boberski
Warsaw

Note from the editor:

The Ukrainian Weekly welcomes letters to the editor and commentaries on a variety of topics of concern to the Ukrainian American and Ukrainian Canadian communities. Opinions expressed by columnists, commentators and letter-writers are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of either The Weekly editorial staff or its publisher, the Ukrainian National Association.