Longtime community leader and activist Charles (Chuck) Zaionz died on June  18 of a stroke. He was 71.

Zaionz was born in Toronto and attended Harbord Collegiate. He became a  chartered accountant, going into business with his younger brother, Bernie.

His son, Rafi, and community activist Moshe Ronen, who considers himself Zaionz’s protegee, described him as “an armadillo – hard on the outside, soft on the inside.”

Zaionz’s wife, Ruth, said her husband first became involved in community work when some cousins, who had fled to Argentina to escape the Holocaust, disappeared during the dark days of the Argentine junta. A military dictatorship was in power in Argentina from 1976 to 1983.

Former national Canadian Jewish Congress president and Liberal MP Irwin Cotler, in a note to the family, said that Zaionz was “one of the first to take up the struggle against the Argentine authorities on behalf of the disappeared and indeed was the reason that Congress and myself became involved in this struggle.”

He praised Zaionz as “a stalwart of the community – a committed, involved person and a person of honour and integrity.”

Cotler added that “he was somebody you could always count on. He was always there to do that which had to be done, without ever seeking any recognition – only the satisfaction of the mitzvah itself.”

That was only the beginning of years of Zaionz’s community involvement.

He was fiscal chairman of the Board of Jewish Education (now the Mercaz). Rabbi Irwin Witty, the late director of the Board of Jewish Education, recognized his financial genius, Ruth said.

Zaionz was a board member of Associated Hebrew Schools; chairman of CJC, Ontario region; chair of the CJC national executive; an officer of Toronto Jewish Congress (predecessor of today’s UJA Federation of Greater Toronto); and a founder of Shaarei Zion Congregation, a small, now defunct Orthodox synagogue in the Leslie Street and Finch Avenue area.

Zaionz was also an avid supporter of the creation of Or Haemet Sephardic School.

Zaionz introduced Ronen to the organized community. As head of the controversial Jewish Students Network, Ronen said he was seen as somewhat of a gadfly. “We were anti-establishment, and we weren’t prepared to submit to what the community wanted to do, like supporting Soviet Jewry or Ethiopia.”

As soon as Zaionz became regional chair, he appointed Ronen as chair of the Israel Affairs Committee. “He really cared about us [young people]. He respected us, and saw us as the future,” Ronen said.

This appointment launched his career with the Jewish community, said Ronen, who went on to become CJC regional chairman, chair of the national executive and eventually national chair of CJC.

Zaionz was “in community politics for the right reasons – not for the glory,” Ronen mused.

People didn’t see the soft part of him. “He always had integrity and honesty – and it cost him,” Ronen pointed out.

At the shivah, Zaionz’s co-workers talked about how tough he was, always asking pointed questions and expecting prompt and accurate responses.

Manuel Prutschi, who was executive director of the CJC, Ontario region, when Zaionz was chairman, described him as very intelligent and a quick study. “You didn’t have to take a long time explaining an issue to him and having him work out strategies to deal with it,” Prutschi said.

To say that Zaionz was devoted to his family is an understatement. His brother, Bernie, said that they were always part of each other’s lives, sharing the good times and the bad.

But it was as a grandfather that Zaionz shone, “glowing when the family was in his house, at his table,” Ruth said. Son Rafi noted that “the grandchildren’s wishes were his command” and called him “a zaide second to none.” Daughter Ilana Winkler agreed with the description – “he was the be-all and end-all of zaides,” she said.

Zaionz is survived by Ruth, his wife of 41 years; brother Bernie and his wife Hedda; son Rafi and his wife Ellen; daughter Ilana and her husband Richard Winkler; and grandchildren Yoni, Benny, Sammy, Zach and Maya.