Speech #970076092

Speaker. I am proud to rise today and voice my concern for a particular Soviet "refusenik" as part of the continuing Call to Conscience Vigil. 1981. As you know. the Call to Conscience Vigil is a meaningful and effective congressional effort to draw attention to the ceaseless oppression of Jews and others in the Soviet Union. and to demonstrate bipartisan congressional support for individuals and families who wish to emigrate to the free world. As a participant in the Vigil. I would like to call the attention of my colleages today to the plight of Mr. Ilya Esses and his family who have been seeking to emigrate from the Soviet Union since Trained as a mathematician. Ilya Esses was employed at the Academy of Sciences in Lithuania. and later as a lecturer in mathematics in a Moscow medical institute. Since his application to emigrate. however. he has been unable to find a job. During this time he has devoted himself to studying the tenets and customs of Judaism. a difficult task in a country which frowns on religious study and practice. With a