INSIGHT 9 Once Upon A Time In America The Ukrainian•American community is asking itself some painful questions about maintaining a national culture in melting pot America. Sound familiar? NOAM M.M. NEUSNER Staff Writer W arren's Ukrainian Cultural Center doesn't have a sauna. It doesn't have a pool. Or an art gallery. Or a res- taurant. To compare it to the Jewish Community Center on Maple Road would not only be unfair. It would be inaccurate. But Detroit's Ukrainian community has much in common with the Jewish community. Both strive for something that could not, until recently, exist in their homelands: a culture based on distinct national tradi- tions. Not surprisingly, the im- minence of Ukrainian in- dependence from Soviet con- trol has created in the Ukrainian community reac- tions reminiscent of what Jewish Americans in 1948 felt following the creation of the State of Israel. Witness the following: • Ukrainian-American experts in management, pol- itics and business are help- ing the Ukraine build an economic and political in- frastructure. • Ukrainian-American lobbyists are rallying for of- ficial American recognition of a separate Ukrainian nation. • Churches, schools and a variety of community groups teach Ukrainian, publish Ukrainian-language news- papers and books, run Ukrainian-American coun- try clubs and provide an assortment of assistance programs for Ukrainian- American families. • A program started by a Ukrainian-American pro- fessor at Wayne State Uni- versity will host 24 Ukrai- nian students for business management classes. - With this growing en- thusiasm, the Ukrainian community is asking itself some all-too-familiar ques- tions. To what extent does loyalty to the motherland lie? Will energy devoted to the Ukraine become a substitute for substantive Illustration by Bob Lynch . Ukrainian culture in America? Will the Ukraine resuscitate an ethnic com- munity in America that needs cultural rejuvenation? What role does a diaspora community have to play in relation to the political direc- tion of the redeemed mother- land? Between the two com- munities in the United States, the differences outweigh the likenesses. And yet the issues remain. The American Jewish corn- munity has built much of its agenda around Israel, a nation which is both a source of pride and pain. For many American Jews, support for Israel constitutes their en- tire Jewish experience. The Ukrainian community has taken notice. It admires the Jewish community, its financial and political weight and willingness to use it. It has noticed how Jewish Americans focus on Israel, how it raises funds for it and, perhaps most crucial- ly, how it fends off charges of dual loyalty. In the Ukrainian commun- ity, these are still emerging issues. "We carry a burden for the fate of another nation," said Borys Potapenko, director of the Ukrainian Cultural Center. "It's been on the threshold of extinction for many years now." For many Ukrainians, Will energy devoted to the Ukraine become a substitute for Ukrainian culture in America? ethnic identification often came from a sense of soli- darity with the native land. Like other ethnic groups in America, including Jews, Ukrainians have used poli- tics as communal fodder. "It's a feeling among cer- tain individuals," said Jerry Dutkewych, a hospital ad- ministrator. "Part of it is the giving back." Mr. Dutkewych is doing more than giving back. Born a refugee after World War II in Germany, he has cousins he has never met. Soon, however, he will return to Ukraine to teach a general management course at the University of Lvov. In order to take the time to teach, he is quitting his job at the Henry Ford Health Care Corp. He has no desire to give up his American citizenship or his American way of life. Mr. Dutkewych is hoping to rebuild the Ukraine, but also to consult with Western industrialists on investing in the Ukraine's vast natural and industrial resources. To the 130,000 Ukrainians in the Detroit area, however, the Ukraine's independence is more than an opportunity to consult. They have rallied around the Ukraine's cul- ture, language and commun- ity. "Prior to two years ago, when the Ukraine was unable to articulate its will, it was up to the diaspora to speak out about the truth of the rights of the Ukrainian nation," said Mr. Potapenko, a child of Ukrainian refu- gees from World War II. Now, with independence looming, the Ukrainian diaspora finds itself suffer- ing from an identity crisis. While most Ukrainian- Americans are rejoicing for their motherland, cultural assimilation among them has risen and, at the same time, their community's po- litical significance has dropped. Sound familiar? Since Israel's independence, American Jews routinely wrestle with the argument that Israel is the only place where a self-respecting Jew can live. At the same time, Ameri- can Jews have experienced an alarming drop in re- ligious involvement. Many have concluded that the only way to solve both problems is to move to Israel. And yet few American Jews do, or want to. The Ukrainian community in America is just beginning to see these problems firsthand. In the 1950s, many of the recent arrivals from the ravages of Europe suffered from a "don't unpack syn- drome." They refused to buy homes or make long-term investments for fear that, at any point, the motherland would rise and they would be called to duty. Now, however, the Ukrai- nian-American community is well-settled. There is vir- tually no Ukrainian who does not have family in the Ukraine, says Mr. Potapenko, and yet he doubts whether even ten percent of Ukrainian- Americans will return to the Ukraine. "I think we'd be lying to ourselves if we said we're go- ing back as a community," said Mike Berezowsky, a lawyer who directs a Satur- THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 41