Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Henkin (1881–1973) was a prominent Orthodox rabbi in the United States. He was born in 1881 in Klimavichy, Belarus, then in the Russian Empire, and studied at the Slutzker Yeshiva under Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer. He received rabbinical ordination (semichah) from Rabbi Meltzer, and he was also ordained by Rabbi Yaakov Dovid Wilovsky (the Ridvaz), Rabbi Boruch Ber Leibowitz and Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein, the Aruch HaShulchan. However, according to the recollections of a student (included in the responsa of Rabbi Henkin's grandson), Rabbi Henkin did not remember receiving ordination from Rabbi Epstein, and for his ordination from Rabbi Wilovsky he was not tested by Wilovsky himself, but by Wilovsky's son-in-law. After serving as rabbi in a number of Russian towns, he e