Who is Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky and how did he become the beloved leader of an entire continent?

Photos: Meir Haltovsky, Family archives

Across the Ocean

The Kamenetsky family lived in the tiny Lithuanian village of Tzitevyan, where young Shmuel’s father, Rav Yaakov, was the rav. The town was tiny and rural: when Rav Shmuel was a child, he broke his nose when he was kicked in the face by a horse.  In the late 1930s, Rav Yaakov traveled to the United States and Canada to raise funds for the Slabodka yeshiva. Recognizing that World War II was on the horizon and that Jews in Europe were in danger, he took a position as a rav and brought his family over  to Toronto in 1938, saving them from the horrors of the Holocaust.

Such a small town did not have a lot of people to chip in for the rav’s salary, and the money they gave was not enough for the family to live on, so Rav Yaakov applied to become the rav of Vilkomir, a larger town. To the family’s dismay, a different rav was chosen. With no other options, Rav Yaakov brought his family to the United States, first serving as a rav in Seattle and then settling in Toronto in 1938.

It may have seemed like a huge disappointment that they could not find a position in Europe and they had to move to America. But that decision saved the entire family from the horrors of the Holocaust, which began the year after they moved!

Growing in Torah

Young Shmuel attended the Eitz Chaim school in Toronto, and then went to Baltimore to learn in Ner Yisroel under Rosh Yeshivah Rav Yitzchok Ruderman, who was his father’s cousin. At age  20, the budding talmid chacham passed a farher on the entire Shas with Rashi and Tosafos, and Pnei Yehoshua on seder Moed and Nashim.

While in Baltimore, R’ Shmuel heard a derashah from Rav Aharon Kotler, the famous founder and Rosh Yeshivah of Beth Medrash Govoha, the Lakewood Yeshivah. Right away, he knew: this man would be his rebbi! Not wanting to offend his cousin Rav Ruderman, and suspecting his father wouldn’t allow it, Rav Shmuel slipped out at night and traveled to Lakewood to learn under Rav Aharon.