Yaakov Kamenetsky

Who was Yaakov Kamenetsky?

Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky, was a prominent rosh yeshiva, posek and Talmudist in the post-World War II American Jewish community.

He was born in the hamlet of Kalushkove, Lithuania, in 1891. Shortly afterwards his family moved to the village of Dolhinov where he grew up. He studied in Minsk and then for 21 years in Slabodka yeshiva under Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel. It was there that he met his lifelong friend Rabbi Aharon Kotler, who would go on to found the Lakewood yeshiva. His younger cousin, Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak Ruderman, also grew up in Dolhinov.

While studying in Slabodka, Rabbi Kamenetsky decided he wanted to spend a period in the Kelm Talmud Torah, famous for its focus on task and ability to avoid distraction. However, he knew that if he asked Rabbi Finkel directly he would be refused. Therefore, one day he took a round-about path to the outhouse instead of the direct one he always used. Rabbi Finkel called him over and sent him to Kelm to learn discipline.

Rabbi Kamenetsky was appointed rabbi of Tzitavyan in 1926 and moved to North America in 1937, where he initially took rabbinical positions in Seattle and then Toronto. From 1948 to 1968 he headed Mesivta Torah Vodaath in Brooklyn, New York. Along with Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, he led American Jewry in issues of halachic and spiritual guidance until 1986, when both men died.