Rav Yosef Eliyohu Henkin Menahel of Ezras Torah Edut L'Yisroel Perushei Ivra

Rav Yosef Eliyahu Henkin, a sixth-generation descendant of Rav Chaim Volozhiner (d. 1821) was born in 1881 in Klimavichy, Belarus, then in the Russian Empire. He studied at the Slutzker Yeshiva under Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer where he was ordained (semichah). He was also ordained by the Rav Yaakov Dovid Wilovsky, the Ridvaz, Rabbi Boruch Ber Leibowitz, and Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein, the Aruch HaShulchan. After serving as a rabbi in a number of Russian towns, he emigrated to America in 1922. In 1925 he became the director of Ezras Torah, which provided assistance to scholars both here and in the land of Israel. He served in that capacity until his passing in 1973.