Joseph Kaminetsky

Joseph Kaminetsky (1911 – March 17, 1999) was an American Orthodox rabbi who became the pioneering first director of Torah Umesorah – National Society for Hebrew Day Schools of North America, based in New York City. He was directly responsible for the establishment of literally hundreds of yeshiva day schools across the United States outside of the New York Metropolitan Area.

Kaminetsky was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1911. At first, he attended public school for a year, but his father wanted him to attend a yeshiva, and sold the family home in order to afford the tuition; they moved from East New York to Brownsville. Kaminetsky attended Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin for elementary school, and later Talmudical Academy High School on East Broadway on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Kaminetsky then became a member of the first class at Yeshiva University, graduating magna cum laude in 1932. He immediately sought to immerse himself in the area of Jewish education, becoming the principal of the afternoon school of Manhattan's prestigious Jewish Center synagogue and later its assistant rabbi under Rabbi Leo Jung, serving this post in the 1930s and 1940s. After receiving his doctorate in education from Columbia Teachers College, he became the executive director of Manhattan Day School. It was at this post that he was tapped to be a leader at Torah Umesorah. He served as educational director for two years before rising to director of the entire organization, replacing Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz upon the latter's death in 1948.

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