Ukrainians in New Jersey

A separate Ruthenian/Ukrainian community grew in Carteret, a nearby suburb of Perth Amboy. Carteret and Chrome village were part of Woodbridge Township in Middlesex County until 1906, when they became the Borough of Roosevelt. In 1922 the name was changed to the Borough of Carteret.

In the 1880’s, Canada Manufacturing, Williams & Clark Fertilizers and Wheeler Condensers bought property on the Staten Island Sound and sparked the industrialization of the village of Carteret. In 1905, Chrome Steel, Liebig Mfg., and U.S. Metals and Refining became a source of new jobs for an ever-growing population.

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The ‘Narodna Torhovlia’ building in Carteret, N. J.

The first Ruthenians arrived in Carteret in 1896 and came from these counties in Ukraine: Syanik, Dobromyl, Zolochiv, Zbarazh and Rohatyn. They worked in factories of metal products, oil refineries, factories of artificial fertilizers, paints and tailoring workshops. Various societies and organizations were formed, including a branch of the Ukrainian National Association, the Society of the Zaporozhye Sich, founded in 1912 for which the present author Michael Buryk’s great uncle Mykhailo Cherpanyak (Czerepaniak) was the chairman.Jubilee Book of the Ukrainian National Association in Commemoration of the Fortieth Anniversary of Its Existence. Svoboda Press, Jersey City, N.J., 1936. p. 618.

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Perth Amboy Evening News (Perth Amboy, New Jersey), 1911-09-25

In 1910, St. Demetrius Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church was founded by about 30 families from Halychyna. A church building was erected in 1911 and blessed by Ukrainian Catholic Bishop Soter Ortynsky. The parish continued to grow with the arrival of new immigrants. In 1927, a majority of the parish voted and decided to leave the Greek Catholic diocese and to join the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople. In 1931, Father Joseph Zuk became the pastor and was consecrated their bishop and the church became St. Demetrius Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral.

Not all the parishioners of St. Demetrius were satisfied with this decision. Under the leadership of Joseph K. Ginda, who had been one of the founders of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Perth Amboy and of St. Demetrius in Carteret, some of the former parishioners of St. Demetrius would eventually establish St. Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Church in Carteret in 1949. By 1936 there were 2,000 Ukrainians in Carteret. Of this total, 1,467 were parishioners of St. Demetrius Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral.

Despite major changes to the community, both St. Demetrius and St. Mary’s continue to function today. For many years, St. Demetrius Cathedral was pastored by Fr. Ivan Hundiak. In 1973 he was ordained as Archbishop Mark, giving the Cathedral a resident bishop again, for a time.