Daily Podcasts Video Research

Chosen to Live

JL;DR SUMMARY Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky and the Satmar Rebbe attribute their survival during the Holocaust to personal spiritual disciplines they maintained from a young age. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

HolocaustJewish EthicsSurvivalTruthIntegritySatmar RebbeSpiritual DisciplineRav Yaakov KamenetskyPersonal Observance

Places mentioned

Boro Park, New York, United States
"This young fellow, who had originally learned with Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky in Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, once escorted Reb Yaakov home on a Friday night when he was in Boro Park for Shabbos."
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
"I was in Toronto, Reb Yaakov answered."
Miami Beach, Florida, United States
"He said that he once went to visit Reb Yaakov in Miami Beach, where he spent the winter months in his later years."

Support this source

This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 73134
Cairo Source ID 8
Retrieved 2026-01-21 05:30:25 UTC
Curated 2026-01-21 08:30:34 UTC