Local group comes to aid of elderly and destitute still living in Vilnius

But Jacob Picheny, who represents the Bay Area Council for Jewish Rescue and Renewal, has a different picture of the city where a once-thriving Jewish community was all but obliterated.

As he walked along the winding cobblestone roads of the city's old section with Boris Borisov, leader of the Vilnius Jewish community, he discovered that all was not well. While Jewish community leaders have tried to revive Jewish spiritual life and traditions, harsh economic conditions have taken a toll, especially among pensioners, who receive the equivalent of about $40 per month.

"There are about 2,000 needy pensioners on our lists; 476 are really starving," Borisov told him.

Most of the young adults in the Jewish community have left, leaving the elderly behind. About 4,000 to 5,000 Jews remain, living in hardship.

"Many can't leave because they are too old," Picheny said. "They feel insecure when going to another place; others have no relatives, nor do they speak English or Hebrew."

With memories of the Holocaust that annihilated 90 percent of Lithuania's Jews, Vilnius' Jewish community leaders are determined to assist those who remain. The Vilnius Jewish Community Board is working to provide the hungry with free daily meals, home visits, food parcels and cash, with the assistance of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

But more is needed.

The BACJRR has agreed to be an agent for delivering donations to the Vilnius community.

"I am working with the council to raise $10,000, which will serve as a base for requesting matching funds from other sources," said Picheny.

For his recent 60th birthday, Picheny sent out 150 invitations to a party in the garden of the Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley. Instead of presents, Picheny requested donations for the Jews of Vilnius. About $3,000 was raised.

"A few American Jews can make a big difference in this case," Picheny said. "This action also honors Vilna's distinguished past as the East European center of Jewish learning. I ask all those who are able and so inclined to assist us."