 His father was Hillel Henkin, a Jewish educator in New Haven, Connecticut.After graduating from the Yeshivah of Flatbush High School in 1962, he studied six years with his famous grandfather, Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Henkin, from whom he received semichah, and served as the Rabbi of the Beit She'an valley before moving to Jerusalem.He lives in Jerusalem, with his wife, , founder and head of Nishmat, the Institute for Advanced Jewish Studies for Women.