Since the Middle Ages Vilna (also known as Vilnius or the Jerusalem of Lithuania), was one of the main centres of Jewish cultural, religious, social and political activity in the Diaspora. At one time, close to half of all the city inhabitants were Jewish.

Today the Jewish community of Vilnius is a faint shadow of its glorious past. No more than 4,000 Jews, or less than 1% of its total population, remain in the city. Most of the former Jewish residents of Vilnius were murdered during the Holocaust, and many of those who managed to survive moved to Israel, or other Western countries.