The first ethnic Ukrainians (or Ruthenians, as they would have been called then) began to emigrate to the United States from Galicia in Austria-Hungary in the late 1800s. This migrants were driven by the extreme economic impoverishment of the region and lured by of the prospect of jobs in the United States. Some of those first arrivals landed during the Depression of 1882–1885, a major contraction of the US economy that lasted 38 months. Despite these difficult times, they found work and began communities in both urban and rural areas of New Jersey that continued to expand until World War I.
Between the two World Wars and the major economic dislocation of the Great Depression (1929-1939), the Ukrainian American community in New Jersey managed to grow and thrive despite challenging times. After World War II, a third wave of immigration arrived in the Garden State sponsored by earlier immigrants followed by a fourth wave in the late 1980’s that continued up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014. And Ukrainians began to settle in the suburbs beyond major cities. A new wave of Ukrainians has come since February 2022 under the sponsorship of local Ukrainian Americans and others after another major Russian invasion of the country.
The community in New Jersey has managed to create and develop many organizations, non-profits, churches and institutions that nourish it. Many prominent social and civic leaders have grown from its roots. Shared democratic values and a desire for freedom have been characteristic of the community. The image of the community for other New Jerseyans is one whose members are hard-working, resilient, resourceful and able to closely maintain their relationship with Ukraine and their family members there while actively participating in American society and politics. Their intrepid spirit has been their greatest strength. The campaign “Be brave, like Ukraine” launched by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in April 2022 during the war is not just a slogan: it inspires everybody to do more.
The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine has coalesced the New Jersey Ukrainian American community into supporting humanitarian aid efforts while continuing to undertake its many cultural, social and educational activities here. We continue to hope and pray for a just peace in Ukraine that will ensure its continued existence as a world nation and independence as a modern state.
Continue to ‘Ukrainian immigrant communities before World War II’