Yaakov Kamenetsky

Yaakov Kamenetsky
Born	February 28, 1891 Kalushkove, Lithuania
Died	March 10, 1986 Baltimore, Maryland
Buried	Mount Judah Cemetery, Queens, New York, March 10, 1986

Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky (February 28, 1891 – March 10, 1986), 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 later founded the Lakewood yeshiva. His younger cousin, Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak Ruderman, also grew up in Dolhinov.

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.

Rabbi Kamenetsky was renowned as "Chakima D'Yehudai", the wise man of the Jews. Aside from his extensive Torah scholarship, he was known for his ever-present warm smile and his expertise in Hebrew grammar.

Rabbi Kamenetsky's first wife was Rebbetzin Ita Ettil Kamenetsky, who died on July 9, 1954. In 1958, Rabbi Kamenetsky married Mrs. Chana Urman of Toronto. The mesader kidushin for Rabbi Kamenetsky's marriage to Rebbetzin Chana Kamenetsky was his close friend and colleague, Rabbi Zelik Epstein. Rebbetzin Chana Kamenetsky died shortly after her husband in 1986.

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