Plaut, a former president of the Canadian Jewish Congress who wrote widely on human rights, died Feb. 8 at the age of 99. He often was quoted by news media around the world on issues pertaining to Reform Judaism.
He was the general editor and primary commentator of “The Torah: A Modern Commentary,” which has become the standard text used by the Reform movement. (Milwaukee Rabbi Dudley Weinberg of Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun had left at his death in 1976 a draft introduction to Deuteronomy that Plaut incorporated into the book.)
In later years, Plaut 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 synagogue’s senior scholar in residence in 1978.
After receiving his U.S. citizenship in 1943, he enlisted 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.
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