Doris Wise Montrose, the indefatigable leader of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors (CJHS) — which over the past year or so has hosted presentations, panels, and other events featuring speakers such as Norman Podhoretz, Seth Lipsky, Dore Gold, Caroline Glick, Frank Gaffney, Mitchell Bard, Tzipi Hotovely, Philippe Karsenty, and many others — describes how and why CJHS came about:
I was the first child born to my parents after they met in a Displaced Persons camp in Germany, married, and moved to Toronto, Canada. I was fortunate. My parents had such a sense of gratitude and blessing for the lives they had survived to have, that our home was not as much darkened by loss as it was lightened by celebrations of life cherished.
I grew up, living as a Jew in unprecedented equality and comfort. While I knew that my parents’ generation had been helpless in the face of destruction, I grew up taking my own safety for granted, never giving it a second thought. Unlike any other generation of Jews for the last three thousand years, I lived in a world where the Jewish state of Israel exists — not as a dream, but as a vibrant national reality, with a strong military to defend and protect Jewish life.
We in the post-Holocaust generations need to fully realize that if Israel had existed at the time of the Holocaust, there would not have been a Holocaust. We need to understand, too, that we are not safe because we’re so special . . . we are special in that we are safe. And it is only Israel that can be counted on to keep us safe. It is Israel — and only Israel — that can be counted on to prevent the next “final solution” from becoming truly final. This is too great a blessing to take for granted.
It has been my aim, through CJHS, to educate the public that, as Prime Minister Netanyahu said, "…it is so much easier to talk about the lessons learned from the past, than to implement them into the present and the future. But we, the Jewish people, cannot ignore the lessons learned from the Holocaust as they apply to the present day."
In 2006, I founded CJHS within 3 days of Gilad Schalit’s abduction and imprisonment by Hamas terrorists. I founded the organization in a massive campaign to spread awareness of the three young Israeli soldiers who were captured. This work brought into my life a few very special people, who gave me direction, purpose and their friendship. We became soul mates, spreading a message that was to a large and frightening extent, unknown.
CJHS soon began to host a monthly program of guest speakers in my living room. It was not long before we outgrew that space, and with the generosity of the Luxe Hotel, were able to expand. In the five years now that we have been hosting speakers, presentations and events, our audience has steadily grown into a formidable, knowledgeable and activist community with a strong will to survive. For me, this work fulfills the moral imperative to protect the Jewish people from ever being helpless again. It is the best way I have found to honor my parents and all the survivors, as well as the millions of victims who perished.
The “About Us” page at the CJHS website features a quotation from Vladimir (Ze’ev) Jabotinsky’s 1938 Tisha b’Av address to the Jews of Poland:
"For three years I have been imploring you, Jews of Poland, the crown of world Jewry, appealing to you, warning you unceasingly that the catastrophe is nigh. My hair has turned white and I have grown old over these years, for my heart is bleeding that you, dear brothers and sisters, do not see the volcano which will soon begin to spew forth its fires of destruction. I see a horrible vision. Time is growing short for you to be spared. I know you cannot see it, for you are troubled and confused by everyday concerns… Listen to my words at this… for time is running short."
I know, the Jews of Poland didn’t think so either. Doris personifies the “Third Message of Tisha b’Av.”