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4 OUR LIFE • January-February 2025 100 Years Ago: The UNWLA’s Promise of Public Diplomacy Martha Kichorowska Kebalo , Branch 64, New York City The document reproduced here stands at the very center of the origin story of the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America. This letter, both as an announcement and as an appeal to action, is di - rected by a group of activist women to the leaders of Ukrainian American organizations. They entreat their esteemed colleagues to encourage all Ukrain - ian women’s groups to join a new initiative. As such, the letter heralds the first successful attempt at organizing Ukrainian women’s groups under one national umbrella. The letter is also important for its political con - text. The demise of the Ukrainian National Repub - lic (UNR) in 1921 meant statelessness and exile for the leaders of the National Council of Women of Ukraine (NCWU). Ultimately, this would cost them their place in the International Council of Women (ICW) into which the Ukraine council (backed by the government of the UNR) was inducted in 1920. Ukrainian women living in the American diaspora were being called to unity, to seek membership in the National Council of Women of the United States, and to use their persuasive skills and polit - ical rights to advocate for the freedom and sover - eignty of their Ukrainian homeland. The letter of June 24, 1925, is on the official let - terhead announcing the creation of the League of Ukrainian Women of America and listing its elect - ed office holders: Julia Shustakewich, President; Stefania Abrahamovska, First Vice President; Julia Jarema, Second Vice President; Katherine Shutock, Treasurer; and Helen D. Lototsky, Secretary. Lotots- ky signed the letter in the name of the Soiuz Ukrai - nok v Amerytsi, underscoring the intent to mod - el their League on the Soiuz Ukrainok movement (1921–1938) of Halychyna and Volhynia, regions of western Ukraine that came under the rule of the Polish Second Republic after World War I. All but one of these women had emigrated from Ukraine to America at a young age. Each was known as a community activist in her own right. Julia Ma - levich Shustakewich (1892–1952) was a belov - ed actress of the diaspora theater; Julia Jarema (1883–1948), the recently widowed owner of the Peter Jarema Funeral Home, founded a women’s Ukrainian Democratic Club in 1924; American-born Katherine Shutock (Kedrowsky; 1904–1997) was studying accounting at City College and was active in the youth-oriented Sich club movement; Helen D. Lototsky (1894–1975), widowed with small chil - dren, had remarried and was gaining political expe - rience at the side of Volodymyr Lototsky, editor of the newspaper Svoboda , published by the Ukrainian National Association; and Stefania Abrahamovska (1897–1982) was the proprietor of Stefi’s hair salon and president of the Ukrainian Women’s Hroma - da of New York (1921). It was Abrahamovska who called the meeting of April 5, 1925, that initially unit - ed these women as the ad hoc Women’s Congress Committee, whose immediate purpose was fund - raising to bring a delegation representing the exiled NCWU to the Seventh Quinquennial Meeting of the ICW to be held in Washington, DC, May 6-9, 1925. They were also mindful of a February 2 letter they had received from Milena Rudnytsky, a member of the NCWU and feminist leader of the Soiuz Ukrainok in Lviv, requesting the assistance of Ukrainian Amer - ican women experienced in community building and knowledgeable about international women’s organizations, who would be capable of arguing the Ukrainian cause and advocating for Ukrainian wom - en’s individual and collective rights. As it turned out, Julia Jarema and Helen D. Lo - totsky traveled as representatives to Washing - ton, DC. Due to political hindrances, only Hanna Chykalenko, then living in Switzerland, was granted travel documents to represent the exiled NCWU at the ICW meeting. There she argued, to no avail, the NCWU’s right to retain its membership in that global women’s parliament. In the days after the ICW meeting, the Ukrainian women’s ad hoc Con - gress Committee called a public meeting to host Chykalenko in New York, allowing her to brief the community on the current situation. Chykalenko was most adamant that it was time to establish a Ukrainian women’s umbrella, because only such an organization could gain membership in the Na - tional Council of Women of the United States, and
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