Wolf Gunther Plaut, CCOOnt (November 1, 1912 – February 8, 2012) was an American Reformrabbi and writer who was based in Canada. Plaut was the rabbi of Holy Blossom TempleinToronto for several decades and since 1978 was its senior scholar.[1]
He was born in Münster, Germany. His father's name was Jonas and his mother's name was Selma.[2] Gunther had a younger brother, Walter, who was the Rabbi of Temple Emanuel of Great Neck, NY at the time of his death in 1964 at the age of 44.[3] Gunther received his Doctor of Laws degree and in 1935 fled the Nazis and went to the United States. In 1939, he received his ordination as a Rabbi from Hebrew Union College. After receiving his U.S. citizenship on March 31, 1943, he enlisted as a chaplain in the U.S. Army. He was eventually assigned to the 104th Infantry "Timberwolf" Division and served as a frontline chaplain with the 104th in Belgium and Germany. He held pulpits in Chicago, Illinois 1939-49)[4] and at Mount Zion Temple in St. Paul, Minnesota (1948–1961). He moved to Holy Blossom Temple in 1961, replacing Abraham Feinberg.
He published a volume of commentary on the Torah[5] and Haftarah, which has become the standard Humash used by the Reform movement. He was a long-time columnist for the Canadian Jewish News as well as a contributor of opinion pieces to various Canadian newspapers such as The Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star. He was the first recipient of the W. Gunther Plaut Humanitarian Award. In 1978, he was the honoree of the Toronto Jewish National Fund Negev Dinner.
He was president of the Canadian Jewish Congress from 1977 to 1980, and was also vice-chair of the Ontario Human Rights Commission. In 1983, he was elected president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the international association for Reform rabbis.
A number of years ago, Plaut was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and withdrew from all public activities. In February 2012, he died at Baycrest Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at the age of 99.
His son, Jonathan V. Plaut, was also a Reform rabbi, who served as rabbi of Temple Beth IsraelinJackson, Michigan.[6]
His nephew, Rabbi Joshua Eli Plaut, Ph.D (son of Rabbi Walter H. and Hadassah Y. Plaut) is the director of the New York City based American Friends of Rabin Medical Center.
Die materielle Eheungültigkeit(The material marriage annulment) (doctoral dissertation, 1934)
High Holiday Services for Children (1952)
Mount Zion – The First Hundred Years (1956)
The Jews in Minnesota; the first seventy-five years (1959) 59-14710
The Book of Proverbs – A Commentary (1961) 61-9760
Judaism and the Scientific Spirit (1962) 61-17139
The Rise of Reform Judaism: A Sourcebook of its European Origins. New York: World Union for Progressive Judaism. 1963. OCLC39869725. 63-13568
The Case for the Chosen People – The Role of the Jewish People Yesterday and Today (1965) 65-19869
The Growth of Reform Judaism (1965) 65-18555
Your Neighbour is a Jew (1967)
The Sabbath as Protest: Thoughts on Work and Leisure in the Automated Society (1970)
Page Two – Ten Years of "News and Views." (1971)
A Shabbat Manual (1972) 72-10299
Genesis. The Torah, A Modern Commentary, Vol. I (1974)
Exodus. The Torah, A Modern Commentary, Vol. II
Time to Think (1977)
Hanging Threads: Stories Real and Surreal (1978) ISBN0-919630-99-5. Published in U.S. as The Man in the Blue Vest and Other Stories (1978) ISBN0-8008-5093-9
Numbers. The Torah, A Modern Commentary, Vol. IV (1979) ISBN0-8074-0039-4
^Plaut served as assistant rabbi at the Washington Boulevard Temple in Chicago from 1939 to 1949 (except for his U.S. military service, 1943-46); G. Plaut, Unfinished Business, chapter 3; Douglas Wertheimer,『Why Chicago lost ‘a giant’ among Reform leaders,』Chicago Jewish Star, February 24, 2012, p. 1.
^Review by Douglas Wertheimer, "Receiving the Torah Today," The Jewish Star (Calgary), May 28, 1982, pp. 7-8.
