Election in a Homeland Leaves Ukrainians in an Orange State

December 12, 2004
EAST VILLAGE

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/nyregion/thecity/12ukra.html?fta=y

By JENNIFER BLEYER

t the Ukrainian National Home on lower Second Avenue, the auditorium was so saturated with orange on Wednesday that it looked as if Halloween had come late this year. There were orange balloons and orange tablecloths. Women wore orange scarves, and men donned bright orange ties. The few people who walked in without any orange promptly had a swatch of it pinned to their clothing.

They were there to raise money for Viktor A. Yushchenko, the Ukrainian opposition leader whose campaign is symbolized by the color orange, and whose contentious defeat in the Nov. 21 presidential election has prompted thousands to protest. Members of New York's Ukrainian community have been just as jittery and exuberant, and obsessed with every bit of news from Kiev.

The buzz at the party was all about traveling to Ukraine to volunteer as international observers during the new runoff election on Dec. 26; about 60 New Yorkers had already signed up. Zenia Helbig, a Columbia University graduate student, elatedly explained that even those who could not go were helping finance others' trips. "My godmother is sponsoring my friend," she said. "My dentist and his wife are sponsoring another friend. And this is just in the last 24 hours."

Yurko Pylyp, 24, who has signed up to go, noted with a worried expression that election observers were told they might have to travel to areas where previous observers had reported violence and voter intimidation. "It's exciting, and it's scary," he said. "This is basically a cultural draft for us. We have to go back."

Most of the 20-somethings chattering excitedly about events unfolding in their motherland were, in fact, born in the United States. But having been raised within a tight network of Ukrainian-American summer camps, scouting troops and language schools, they have developed a strong cultural identity, and it was that identity that has flared up in recent weeks.

Onstage, a woman performed an anti-Communist anthem over a perky Europop beat. A high school teacher offered CD's of a song he had written, called "Freedom Isn't Free," and, in another room, a dozen teenage girls from a local Ukrainian folk choir got ready for their appearance, wearing traditionally embroidered blouses and chunky black platform shoes.

Maya Lev, 29, darted around in a stylish scoop-necked orange shirt, offering raffle tickets (orange, of course) for sale. "I'm more alive than I ever have been in my whole life," she said. The previous week, she and a few dozen friends had tied orange ribbons to the trees along Second Avenue.

Having exhausted the orange already in her wardrobe, Ms. Lev has recently bought a few new pieces. "I've been wearing orange for two weeks straight," she said with a shrug. "I will wear it until Yushchenko is president."