On Saturday, November 2, we attended the 125th anniversary celebration of the Ukrainian National Association (UNA) in Morristown, N.J., a wonderfully organized event that was not only a reminder of how this organization’s origins began with Lemkos, but of the importance of continuing to preserve our community’s history.
As noted in the event “playbill,” 10 brotherhoods with assets of $220 assembled in Shamokin, Pa., on February 22, 1894, to establish the Ruskyi Narodnyi Soyuz and held their first convention that May, with choirs singing the Ukrainian hymn “Shche Ne Vmerla Ukraina.” Records show that among the association’s founders were its first president, Theodore Talpash, and its second president, John Glowa, who were Lemkos from the villages of Łabowa and Zawadka Rymanowska, respectively. Dmytro Kapitula, a Lemko from the village of Świątkowa Wielka, served as president when the organization, increasingly identifying as Ukrainian, changed its name to the Ukrainian National Association in 1914.