Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Rabbi Gunther Plaut Dies at 99

Rabbi Gunther Plaut, a major figure in Reform Judaism, died in Toronto.

Plaut, a former president of the Canadian Jewish Congress who wrote widely on human rights, died Wednesday at the age of 99. He often was quoted by media around the world on issues pertaining to Reform Judaism.

He published a volume of commentary on the Torah and haftarah that has become the standard text used by the Reform movement; it took 17 years to write. In later years he turned to fiction, publishing two novels and a collection of short stories.

Plaut, a native of Germany who fled the Nazis in 1935 and came to the United States, held pulpits in Chicago and St. Paul, Minn., before moving to Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple, where he was spiritual leader from 1961 to 1977. He became the temple’s senior scholar in residence in 1978.

After receiving his U.S. citizenship in 1943, he enlisted as a chaplain in the U.S. Army and served as a frontline chaplain in Belgium and Germany. He was ordained a rabbi from Hebrew Union College in 1939.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.