{{Short description|20th century American rabbi}} {{Use American English|date=April 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox Jewish leader | honorific_prefix =Rabbi | image = Yaakov Kamenetsky.jpg | caption = | term = | birth_name = | main_work = | predecessor = | successor = | spouse = | children = | dynasty = | father = | mother = | birth_date = February 28, 1891 | birth_place = Kalushkove, Lithuania | death_date = {{death date and age|1986|3|10|1891|2|28}} | death_place = Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. | burial_date = March 10, 1986 | burial_place = Mount Judah Cemetery, Queens, New York |}} '''Yaakov Kamenetsky''' (February 28, 1891 – March 10, 1986), was a prominent rabbi, rosh yeshiva, ''posek'' and Talmudist in the post-World War II American Jewish community.
==Biography== Kamenetsky was born at a folwark (farming estate) called Kalyskovka owned by his grandfather Samuel-Hirsh Kamenetsky, Russia, in 1891.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kamenetsky |first1=Nathan |title=Making of a Godol}}</ref>
Kamenetsky became rabbi of Tzitavyan in 1926 and moved to North America in 1937, where he initially took rabbinical positions in Seattle and then (from 1938 to 1945) Toronto. From 1948 to 1968 he headed Mesivta Torah Vodaath in Brooklyn, New York City. After leaving the yeshiva he moved to Monsey, New York, where he focused on publishing his books.<ref name=YR2004/>
He was an expert in Hebrew grammar and an advocate for English-language Jewish religious books and said that "today English has become a language of Torah."<ref>Rabbi Nosson Scherman in ''The Mandate to Communicate Torah in the Vernacular: Excerpts From a Presentation to an Eleventh Grade'' ([http://agudathisrael.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/JO1998-V31-N04.pdf#page=27 The Jewish Observer, April 1998, p. 27]).</ref>
==Family== Kamenetsky's first wife was Itta Ettil (Heller) Kamenetsky,<ref name=YR2004/>{{rp|p.317}} who died on July 9, 1954. In 1958, Kamenetsky married Chana Urman of Toronto.<ref name="YR2004">{{cite book |author=Yonason Rosenblum |title=Reb Yaakov: The Life and Times of HaGaon Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky |date=1993 <!--2nd edition=2004 --> |isbn=0-89906-413-2 |page=317}}</ref> The officiator at Kamenetsky's marriage to Chana was his close friend and colleague, Rabbi Zelik Epstein. Chana died shortly after her husband in 1986.
Kamenetsky's son, Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, heads the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia and chairs the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah. His other sons are: Rabbis Binyamin (1923–2017), founder of the Yeshiva of South Shore in Long Island, NY, Nathan (1930-2019), vice Rosh yeshiva at Yeshivas Itri, and author of ''Making of a Godol'' on his father, and Avraham (1930–2013). His oldest daughter, Malka (1921–2013), was married to Rabbi Yisrael Shurin (d. 2007).<ref>[https://torahbio.blogspot.com/2007/03/rav-yisroel-shurin-zl-revered-rav-and.html Bio of R' Yisroel Shurin], Reprinted from Ya'ated Neeman, 2007</ref> A second daughter, Rivka, was married to Rabbi Hirsch Diskind (1922–2013), the long-time Dean of Bais Yaakov of Baltimore.<ref>[http://matzav.com/rav-hirsch-diskind-ztl Rav Hirsch Diskind zt"l, reprinted from Matzav.com]</ref>
His grandson Dov Shurin is a singer-songwriter.
== Legacy == He was the subject of the 1993 biography ''Reb Yaakov: The Life and Times of HaGaon Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky'', written by Yonasan Rosenblum and first published by Artscroll-Mesorah. Rabbi Aharon Feldman in ''The Jewish Observer'' called ''Reb Yaakov'' a "remarkable book which genuinely evokes the spirit of Reb Yaakov".''<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Feldman |first1=Rabbi Aharon |author1-link=Aharon Feldman |date=November 1944 |title=Gedolim Books And The Biography of Reb Yaakov Kamenetsky |journal=The Jewish Observer |volume=XXVII |issue=8 |pages=32–34}}</ref>''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Elinsky |first=Kate |date=2022-04-06 |title=On Re-Reading a Banned Book: Nathan Kamenetsky’s Making of a Godol |url=https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/bible/12270/on-re-reading-a-banned-book-nathan-kamenetskys-making-of-a-godol/ |access-date=2025-11-22 |website=Jewish Review of Books |language=en-us}}</ref>
==Works== *''Emes leYaakov al HaShas'' ("Truth to Jacob") – a five-volume work with in depth commentary on the Talmud. *''Emes leYaakov al Shulchan Aruch'' – a volume with commentary and rulings on Shulchan Aruch, The Jewish Code of Law *''Emes leYaakov'' (Formerly known as Iyunim BaMikra) – a two volume commentary on Torah and Prophets, which includes grammatical observations on the Hebrew of the Bible (dikduk).
==References== {{Reflist}} {{cite book |last=Rosenblum |author-link=Jonathan Rosenblum |first=Yonason |title=Reb Yaakov: The Life and Times of HaGaon Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky |publisher=Mesorah Publications |year=1993 |location=Brooklyn, NY |isbn=0-89906-413-2}}
{{cite book | last = Kamenetsky | first = Noson (Nathan) | title = Making of a Godol—Improved Edition | publisher = | year = 2005 | location = | isbn= 965-90379-2-9 }}
{{Cite book|title = Dershowitz Family Saga|isbn = 9781510770232|last1 = Dor-Shav (Dershowitz)|first1 = Zecharia|year=2022|chapter=Personal Experiences with Great Rabbis of My Generation}}
==External links== *[http://www.rabbimeirbaalhaneis.com/Rabbi%20Yaakov%20Kamenetsky.asp Biography Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky] * [https://ishimshitos.blogspot.com/2007/12/truth-of-yaakov-towards-intellectual.html Intellectual profile of R' Yaakov] {{Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kamenecki, Jacob}} Category:1891 births Category:1986 deaths Category:20th-century Lithuanian rabbis Category:Haredi rabbis in Europe Category:Canadian Haredi rabbis Category:American Haredi rabbis Category:Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah Category:Belarusian Orthodox Jews Category:Torah Vodaath rosh yeshivas Category:Slabodka yeshiva alumni Category:20th-century American rabbis Category:Haredi poskim