Ool Information

The Organization for Defense of Lemko Western Ukraine in America, Inc. (OOL) is one of the oldest and most influential organizations among Ukrainians born in the Lemko region. Lemkos, forced to leave Lemkivshchyna, brought love with them during emigration - love for God, love for their Ukrainian nation, their traditions, culture and customs. They also brought with them during emigration a love for their native villages and cities. This love was the stimulus that led them to organize themselves, to form clerical brotherhoods, to build churches, to organize brotherly humanitarian associations (Ukrainian National Association, Ukrainian Fraternal Association), etc. But there came a time when it was necessary for the Ukrainians from the Lemko region to form their own organization. World War I brought much destruction to their native land. It was necessary immediately to help families in the homeland, through a national-cultural, civic organization. We read about the beginnings of the formation of our organization in "Lemkivski Visti" [Lemko News], ed. 6, 1964: "on September 9, 1933, a small group of people gathered at 613 13 th Street in New York, with the intention to begin to bring moral and material help to their brothers in the homeland; first, to buy a large amount of books in the Association "Prosvita" in Lviv, in the form of traveling libraries, and in this way to widen the education among our villages in Lemkivshchyna. We elected a committee and named it the "Central Committee of the Defense of Lemkivshcyna in America. The first head of the Committee was Oleksa Roman, a former Sich rifleman of the Ukrainian Army." The measures of the Committee in the native villages of Lemkivshchyna were carried out by the Traveling Library "Prosvita," and dozens and hundreds of copies of "Nash Lemko" [Our Lemko] were prepaid for local readers. From this time on, the strengthening of the war front in Lemkivshchyna is antedated by moral and material assistance from America. At the consummation of this front was the ...