Nina Bilecka Kujdych arrived in the U.S. from Germany in 1951 with her parents Iwan and Maria as displaced persons from Ukraine. They settled in Philadelphia in the Ukrainian community there. Nina was born in Poltava in 1926 and survived with her parents the man-made Stalin famine (Holodomor) in eastern Ukraine in 1932-33.Moonsammy, Rita Zorn. Passing it On: Folk Artists and Education in Cumberland County, N.J. The New Jersy Council on the Arts, Trenton, N.J., 1992. pps. 109-117. The Biletskys were descendants of the Zaporozhian Kozak Otaman Konstantin Hordiienko, who was the Commander-in-Chief of the Zaporizhian Sich fortress in southern Ukraine.
The years following the famine were extremely difficult in eastern Ukraine and were followed by World War II and the German invasion and occupation. Nina and her parents eventually became forced laborers on a farm in Uelzen (lower Saxony) in Germany. After the war was ended, they found their way to a Ukrainian DP camp near Hanover and lived there from 1946-1950. It was from here that they left for the U.S. in 1951.Moonsammy, Rita Zorn. Passing it On: Folk Artists and Education in Cumberland County, N.J. The New Jersy Council on the Arts, Trenton, N.J., 1992. pps. 120-122.
In 1952, Nina married Ivan (John Kujdych) who was born in Drohobych, Ukraine. He arrived in Philadelphia in 1949. They would later move to Vineland, N.J. (about a 45-minute drive from Philadelphia) where Dr. Kujdych was a research poultry pathologist with Rutgers University from 1959 to 1987. Nina and Ivan arrived in a long-established (Millville, 1910) Ukrainian American community and easily fit into its social, religious and cultural life. Nina became an active member of the Ukrainian Youth Organization (SUM) and Ukrainian Women’s League. She also belonged to two Millville Ukrainian parishes (Sts. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church and St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church) and their sisterhoods, as well as, the Ukrainian National Home.
Ukrainian language and traditional arts were an important part of life in in the 1970’s-1990’s in the Millville/Vineland area. Together with her mother Maria who revived the ancient custom of baking intricately decorated wedding breads called, “korovai”, Nina taught classes in traditional Ukrainian arts to both Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians alike. One of her specialties was Ukrainian cross-stitch embroidery which she learned from her mother. She a was a teacher, an artist and a guilder.
Nina was a teacher of mathematics at Pierce Business School (Philadelphia, P.A.). She also taught Ukrainian traditional arts and culture at the Ukrainian Heritage School in Philadelphia. Mrs. Kujdych was also a teacher of Ukrainian language at the parish school at Sts. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Millville, NJ.
Folk art became the focus of a unique residency for Mrs. Kujdych in the classroom of 7th and 8th grade ESL teacher June Rone at Memorial Intermediate School in Vineland, N.J. Her Puerto Rican students would learn how to do Ukrainian cross-stitch embroidery from Nina Kujdych and also explore comparisons between Ukrainian and Puerto Rican culture. The residency helped the ESL students to think about the importance of adapting to a new culture. Mrs. Kujdych shared her own unique immigration experiences with them and also offered some highlights about Ukrainian history.Moonsammy, Rita Zorn. Passing it On: Folk Artists and Education in Cumberland County, N.J. The New Jersy Council on the Arts, Trenton, N.J., 1992. pps. 123-128.
Nina became well-known in South Jersey not only for doing numerous demonstrations and exhibits of Ukrainian folks arts throughout Cumberland County, but also for teaching courses about them to adults in Vineland High School at night. Her artistic work was well documented in the local press (The Daily Journal, Vineland, N.J.) as well as the newspaper the Press of Atlantic City. And Mrs. Kujdych and her talents were profiled in a 1992 book written by Rita Zorn Moonsammy and published by the New Jersey Council on the Arts, “Passing it On: Folk Artists and Education in Cumberland County, N.J.” Nina’s artistic contributions were noteworthy in southern New Jersey for anyone interested in folk arts and the valuable lessons they convey.