Columnists

False binaries

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There have been innumerable commentaries, analyses, and explanations of last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris. Moderate voices will remind us once again that most Muslims do not support terrorism, and that it is incorrect to portray Islam as an essentially violent religion. One can just as easily cherry-pick one’s texts to “prove” that Christianity is violent. Christians can argue that Islam is a false religion with a false prophet, but that is different from alleging that it is necessarily violent. But others will point to the fact that, in Paris, two diametrically opposed forces clashed: fanatical fundamentalist religion, and official state secularism.

Columnists

Teaching in time of war

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When I arrived in Lviv at the end of August, I expected to see evidence of the war everywhere. Press reports had given me the impression of a country tottering from repeated blows by an overwhelmingly superior enemy. Some friends seemed surprised I was traveling to Ukraine at all. For the first few weeks, the news from the front was distressing. On Freedom Boulevard, a burned out SUV anchored rows of stands and kiosks where donations were collected for the armed forces and the families of servicemen.

Columnists

Mr. Smilyj and Mr. Smiley

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When Wolodymyr and Jaroslawa Smilyj came through Germany to America with their sons Wasyl and Iwan, settling in the truck-gardening town of Parsnip, New Jersey, there was some disagreement about the spelling of their names. Wasyl insisted on the German spelling Smilyj, which he said corresponded to the international system of transliteration, even though some Americans pronounced it “Smillidge.” In fact, even some Ukrainians began to tease him about it, calling him “Mr. Smillidge.” As for Iwan – as soon as he was old enough, he changed his name to John Smiley. They were bright boys, worked hard, and both got into Harvard College. John rowed with the Crimson heavyweights, joined the Porcellians, and went on to law school. He made law review and clerked with the Wall Street firm of Thayer, Wickersham and Postlethwaite, where he landed a partnership-track position.

Columnists

Haytarma

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On July 7 the Ukrainian film “Haytarma” (“The Return,” 2012) was screened at the National Democratic Institute in Washington. The showing was co-sponsored by the Embassy of Ukraine. Produced by the Crimean Tatar television station ATR, which has now been forced to leave Crimea and broadcasts from Kyiv, “Haytarma” was first shown in 2013. In the months before the February-March 2014 Russian invasion, the film became popular in Ukraine and abroad, even winning an award in Russia. Now it is banned there.

Columnists

Flag-wavers. Flagging waverers

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The recent flap over Confederate flags reminds us of the continuing importance of the “merely” symbolic. While pennants, banners and flags have a long European tradition as symbols that many would die for, in today’s world Americans seem uniquely attached to them. My landlady in North Cambridge, Mass. – the “North” is significant – used to hang the American flag in front of her house every summer from Memorial Day to Labor Day, while her son displayed a sticker on his pick-up truck reading “The American flag – fly it, don’t fry it.” This was evidently a reference to the long-haired leftists at the other end of town who expressed their opposition to the Vietnam war by burning the Stars and Stripes. Actually, I find such attention to symbolism to be one of the more admirable qualities of the American.

Scholarship/Education

Historic preservation expert discusses culture and social change

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WASHINGTON – How can we balance the necessity of urban development with the need to preserve cultural and historic sites? What is the role of architects, city planners, historians and the general public in this process? Can cultural preservation change society? These were some of the questions discussed by Dr. Kateryna Goncharova in a lecture on “Ukrainian Cultural Heritage as a Force for Social Change.” Delivered on May 29 at the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington, her talk was co-sponsored by the Washington chapter of the Shevchenko Scientific Society. Dr. Goncharova heads the Scientific Research Section of the Ukrainian State Research and Project Institute for Historic Preservation.

Scholarship/Education

Washington fetes Prof. Larissa Onyshkevych

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WASHINGTON – We do not often expect a person of fourscore years to teach us something fresh and new. That this is mistaken was brilliantly demonstrated on June 12 at a tribute to Prof. Larissa M.L. Zaleska Onyshkevych in Washington. Sponsored by the Shevchenko Scientific Society’s D.C. chapter and the Embassy of Ukraine, the event was held at the Embassy in Georgetown. The Embassy’s cultural attaché, Olha Ivanova, opened the evening. Dr. Bohdana Urbanovych, president of the Washington chapter of the Shevchenko Society, congratulated Prof. Onyshkevych on her 80th birthday.

Columnists

Another world

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One sometimes gets the impression that the clergy live in another world. Surrounded by their fellow clerics and the most pious parishioners, we imagine, they immerse themselves in Scripture and liturgy, their minds and souls steeped in spiritual sentiments and theological thoughts. Hence their sermons, pastoral letters and the eparchial newspapers seem addressed to those who share their mentality. Of course, this is not fair. Our pastors are very much in the world.

Columnists

Decommunization

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Shouldn’t we avoid socially divisive historical issues in wartime? This was one of the arguments advanced in a letter signed by nearly 70 scholars protesting against draft laws 2538-1 and 2558, passed by Ukraine’s Parliament on April 9 but (as of this writing) not yet signed by President Petro Poroshenko. Hailing from North America and Europe (including Ukraine), the academics addressed their letter to President Poroshenko and Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Groisman; it was published in the journal Krytyka (http://m.krytyka.com/en/articles/open-letter-scholars-and-experts-ukraine-re-so-called-anti-communist-law). Along with two others passed the same day, the draft laws form the package of four “decommunization” laws. Draft law No.

Columnists

From Shylock to Sheptytsky

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“When we think of the [sic] Ukraine, we think of pogroms.” With some such words, I heard a BBC correspondent introduce an interviewee around 1990. Now it is true that history has traditionally focused on dramatic events like war or revolution. Thus, the popular image of Ukrainian history emphasized the massacres of Jews during the Khmelnytsky uprising, as well as 19th and 20th century pogroms. Socio-economic and religious factors bred mutual distrust. Yet for nearly all of a thousand years, Christians and Jews in Ukraine lived in peaceful coexistence, even symbiosis. Symbolic of this was Andrey Sheptytsky’s custom of addressing Jewish communities in Hebrew during his episcopal visitations.