Drawn into the Haskalah movement in his youth, he left Ukraine for Vilna, where he associated with maskilim, in particular with Samuel Joseph Fuenn.

[1] While in Kiev, Kaminer inclined toward socialism and joined the circles of Aaron Liebermann and Judah Leib Levin.

He was later made a member of a commission for the investigation of the conditions of the Russian Jews, and he so displeased the officials by his impassioned defence of his coreligionists that he was ordered back to the government of Kiev.

Kaminer wrote verse satires for the Hebrew socialist papers Ha-Emet and Asefat Ḥakhamim, criticizing supporters of the Haskalah, the Ḥasidim, and rich communal leaders.

In 1878, he published Kinot mi-Sidduram shel Benei Dan (קינות מסידורם של בני-דן), a satirical poem on the social condition of the Russian Jews, and Seder Kapparot le-Va'al Takse (סדר כפרות לבעל טקסי), a satirical poem against the farmers of the meat-tax in Russia.