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Institute for Righteous Gentiles
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FACT SHEET
GOAL
To assist financially and provide recognition to those Lithuanians who risked their lives to save Jews during Hitler's scourge in World War II.
BACKGROUND
While no single heroic Lithuanian could match the numbers that Oscar Schindler achieved, each of the 140 righteous gentiles still alive in Lithuania risked his or her life to save individuals, families, and in some instances as many as 26 Jews from a most hostile environment.
During the war, they lived in constant fear. After the war they were threatened, abused, and punished with assorted hardships for the "crime" of saving Jews.
Today this small unique group of people are elderly pensioners. If their living conditions were meager under communism, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of an independent Lithuania has left them in even worse shape -- the value of their savings evaporated and their purchasing power for daily needs vanished.
THE INSTITUTE
The Institute was established by Los Angeles based hand surgeon Benjamin E. Lesin, M.D., following a visit to Lithuania in 1988 to explore his roots. Lesin is an American Jew whose immediate family immigrated to the U.S. from Lithuania just prior to World War II. His relatives who remained were murdered in the Holocaust.
During his second visit Dr. Lesin was introduced to several Lithuanians who recounted those horrific years. Moved by their stories and by their impoverished living conditions, he began returning yearly. He also began sending medicines and other supplies necessary for daily living. Perhaps most iniportant, the Institute provides about 95 righteous Lithuanians with cash supplements to their pensions. To date Dr. Lesin has borne most of the annual cost of this project himself.
Recently Dr. Lesin began a quiet campaign to broaden the Institute's funding base and to achieve long overdue public recognition for Lithuania's righteous gentiles.
For more information on Lithuania 's Righteous Gentiles and how you can help them today and preserve their memory, please contact:
Dr. Lesin at (818)902-2853 or (516)431-7414
or write
Institute for Righteous Gentiles
5114 Amestoy Avenue, Encino, CA 91316
or
205 W Beech St. Long Beach, N.Y. 11561
ALL DONATIONS ARE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE
Links:
Helping Hand for 0ld Heroes of Holocaust
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