Rabbi Gunther Plaut

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Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut was once described as the unspoken leader of Canada's Jewish community. He was considered a titan of human rights and a leader in the Reform Judaism movement. Plaut died Wednesday night at the age of 99 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.

Born in Munster, Germany in 1912, Plaut grew up in an orphanage managed by his parents amidst the seething antipathy and tension that was nascent Nazi Germany. Prejudice, anti-Semitism and hatred were things Plaut faced from a young age and spent his life combating.

"He was a defender of human and civil rights at a time when many didn't even know its meaning. We stand on the shoulders of such men," said Bernie Farber, former head of the Canadian Jewish Congress.

Plaut graduated from law school at the University of Berlin in 1934 and moved to America the next year. He came to Toronto in 1961 after serving as a U.S. Army Chaplain during the war and a rabbi in Chicago and St. Paul in the United States. He was rabbi at the Holy Blossom Temple on Bathurst St. until 1977.

"Rabbi Plaut held a particularly preeminent place in Canada's Jewish community, for which his leadership will be missed," said David Koschitzky, Chair of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.