Rabbi Eliyahu Essas is one of this century's greatest Jewish
revolutionaries. For over 15 years in the Communist Former Soviet Union, he was a leader of the refuseniks (Those who wanted to emigrate to Israel but were refused and persecuted for this), their teacher, their Rosh Yeshivah, the firebrand who gave them courage when the secret police were literally pounding on their doors.
Trained as a brilliant mathematician and secretly taught by his parents to be a proud though silent Jew, Rabbi Essas discovered the Torah in a musty corner of the Vilnius Academy library. From that moment, his life was changed. He became the spark plug and inspiration of the Russian teshuvah (returning) movement. He refused to live for himself. His life belonged to his students and the cause of his newfound Torah Judaism. Incredibly, he made himself an accomplished Torah scholar when it was a crime to teach Torah in the Soviet Union. Incredibly, he was ordained a Rabbi behind the Iron Curtain. Incredibly, he developed students who are themselves leaders of Jewish life today, in Russia, Israel, America and elsewhere.
Rabbi Essas represents the grandeur of the Jewish spirit; the vitality
of Jewish roots that lay buried but not dead under the blood-soaked ice of Communist atheism for sixty years; the lush new growth of Jewish awareness both then in Soviet Russia, and today in Israel and around the world. |
Selected Milestones:
- Born in 1946, in Vilna, Lithuania.
- His Mother, Sonya, in her childhood studied in Yavne Jewish high school for girls in Telshe, (then independent) Lithuania.
- Eliyahu Essas Graduated University, specializing in mathematics.
- From 1970 lived in Moscow with his wife Anya and three children born later.
- After submitting application for a visa to Israel, lost his job, and later was refused by the authorities to get the visa, thus becoming a "refusnik".
- 1971 - Started to learn Hebrew, the Jewish religious books, Tanach, Talmud etc.
- 1972 - started to teach Hebrew to fellow Jews even though illegal
- 1977 - Established the first Torah learning network in 60 years (then underground), eventually reaching out to 15 cities in the Soviet Union.
- 1979 - Established (underground) children's' Jewish education groups, a thing that was strictly forbidden by the Soviet Criminal Code. Hundreds of families with their children participated in those camp programs over next several years.
- 1986 - Was granted permission for emigration to Israel, after then President Ronald Reagan intervened on his behalf. From then Rav Essas resides in Jerusalem.
- 1987 - Granted a prestigious International Award "The Defender of Jerusalem". The award was presented to him by Benjamin Netanyahu, then ambassador to the U.N.
- 1991 - 2002 Continuing to achieve his goal to bring Jewish values and knowledge to as many Russian Jews as possible, established Institutions of Jewish learning, Jewish congregations in Israel and Former Soviet Union Took on position as Director of Aish HaTorah�s Russian Program in Israel where he continues to coordinate the outreach and educational efforts of this department.
His most recent achievement is with the Aish Internet website Evrey.com which ranks as the most visited Russian-language Internet site in this field in the world.
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