The Jewish Press joins Klal Yisrael in mourning the passing of Rav Binyamin Kamenetsky, a visionary Torah educator and premier builder of institutions of Torah learning and prayer. His experience ran the gamut from serving in the 1940s as first-grade rebbe in the Yeshiva Toras Chaim in East New York, Brooklyn, established by the pioneering Rabbi Isaac Shmidman, to founding and heading Torah institutions of higher learning on Long Island.
While he was perhaps best known for having established and led Yeshiva Toras Chaim of South Shore, he also played important roles in the rise of such institutions as Torah Academy for Girls (TAG), Young Israel of Lawrence/Cedarhurst and Young Israel of Woodmere.
A Torah scholar in his own right, having studied under such Torah luminaries as Rav Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman and Rav Dovid Leibowitz, he was also steeped in the ways of the gedolim who were contemporaries and colleagues of his legendary father, Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky. This was evident in his signature smile, welcoming embrace, measured tone, and indefatigable persistence.
May his memory be a blessing.