 He went on to study at Lakewood Yeshiva, becoming a primary student of Aharon Kotler, from whom he received rabbinic ordination.In the mid-1950s, as part of the Lakewood Yeshiva's effort to establish out-of-town yeshivas, Kamenetsky and Dov Schwartzman were sent to found the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia.In 1955, Schwartzman departed to open his own yeshiva in Israel, and Kamenetsky called upon Elya Svei to serve as co-rosh yeshiva.