Shmuel Kamenetsky - Biography

Shmuel Kamenetsky (born 1925) is a Haredi rabbi and co-founder and rosh yeshiva (dean) of the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia. He is one of the best-known living Haredi Litvish Jewish gedolim outside Israel and the best-known son of Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky (1891–1986), one of America's greatest Torah leaders.

Biography

Kamenetzky was a primary student of Rabbi Aharon Kotler, from whom he received semicha (rabbinic ordination). Prior to studying in Kotler's Lakewood Yeshiva, Kamenetsky learned in Ner Israel Rabbinical College under the tutelage of his father's cousin, Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman.

In the mid-1950s, as part of the Lakewood Yeshiva's effort to establish out-of-town yeshivas, Kamenetzky and Rabbi Dov Schwartzman were sent to head the new Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia. In 1955 Schwartzman departed to open his yeshiva in Israel and was replaced as rosh yeshiva by Rabbi Elya Svei, with whom Kamenetsky served as co-rosh yeshiva until Svei's death in March 2009.

Kamenetsky is a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel of America and serves on the rabbinical board of many organizations, including Chinuch Atzmai (Torah Schools for Israel), Torah Umesorah, the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation and the Association for Jewish Outreach Professionals (AJOP).

His opinion is frequently sought and quoted on current issues such as same-sex attraction, child molestation, obesity and dieting, smoking, and getting drunk on Purim. His approbation is also sought for Torah books in English.

His sons are Rabbi Sholom Kamenetsky, an instructor of Talmud in the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia; Rabbi Avrohom Kamenetsky, an instructor of Talmud at Yeshivas Bais Yisroel in Jerusalem; Dov Kamenetsky, a well-known philanthropist and real estate magnate in Toronto; Rabbi Zev Kamenetsky of Lakewood, New Jersey, an instructor of Talmud at Belmar yeshiva; and Rabbi Dovid Kamenetsky, a Talmud instructor at Yeshivat Darche Noam/Shapell's in Jerusalem. His son-in-law is Rabbi Tzvi Berkowitz, a noted lecturer at Ner Israel Rabbinical College.

External links

• Pictures and Audio from Rabbi Kamenetsky's visit to Shapell's
• Other pictures of Rabbi Kamenetsky
• Audio Recordings of Lectures by Rabbi Kamenetsky
• More audio of Rabbi Kamenetsky
• Rabbi Kamenetsky visiting a yeshiva in Israel (Russian)