An Orthodox Jew who is the most prominent recent emigrant from the Soviet Union, has called on Israel and world Jewry to seek a brood improvement in East-West relations as the “sine qua non” for Soviet Jewish emigration.
Ilya Essas, who changed his name to Eliyahu when he arrived in Israel on January 22 with his family, told a packed session of the World Jewish Congress 50th anniversary assembly here that “if relations are not good (between East and West) we cannot expect anything ” by way of aliya for Soviet Jews. Essas, described as a “bal teshuva,” was an aliya activist in the USSR and leader of a Jewish religious revivalist movement there, said to closely resemble the Hasidic sects.
He was granted an exit visa to immigrate to Israel after WJC president Edgar Bronfman intervened with the Soviet authorities on his behalf. His parents live in Israel.
Essas told the 800 WJC delegates and their guests at the session that for him the controversy over quiet diplomacy versus public activism was irrelevant. Both approaches are required, he said in order to marshal the forces of the free world to bring their influence to bear on the Soviet leadership.
Informed sources believe his emigration at this juncture was a deliberate gesture by the Kremlin toward the WJC and Bronfman who has travelled frequently to the Soviet Union in recent years to plead the cause of Soviet Jewry. Essas, a mathematician who became a full professor at age 20, lost his job after applying to emigrate more than 10 years ago.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
