Religionיהודה הרצל הנקין

Yehuda Henkin

Yehuda Henkin was a Religious Zionist rabbi and halakhic decisor in Jerusalem, author of the responsa Benei Banim.

1945 to 2020The responsa Benei BanimRulings on women in Jewish lawNishmat halakhic advisers program

Died: 24 December 2020, Jerusalem
Occupation: rabbi
Education: Yeshivah of Flatbush

Yehuda Henkin was born in 1945 in Pennsylvania

Yehuda Henkin was born in Pennsylvania in 1945 and grew up in New Haven, Connecticut. His father, Dr. Avraham Hillel Henkin, headed the local Board of Jewish Education. His uncle, Louis Henkin, taught international law at Columbia.

He graduated from the Yeshivah of Flatbush High School in 1962. He then studied for 5 years with his grandfather, Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Henkin, and received rabbinic ordination from him and from Rabbi Yehuda Gershuni. He also earned a master's degree in the sociology of religion at Columbia University.

He moved to Israel with his wife Chana in 1972 and served in the IDF. He became the regional rabbi of the Beit She'an valley and later moved to Jerusalem. Between 1981 and 2004 he published 4 volumes of Benei Banim, and in 2019 he published a book of biblical exegesis.

With his wife, founder of Nishmat, he set up its program for training women as halakhic advisers and supervised it. He wrote on the status of women in Jewish law and opposed partnership minyans. His son Eitam and daughter-in-law Naama were murdered in a 2015 attack, and he died in December 2020.