Rabbi Yaakov Menken is the founder and director of Project Genesis, and creator of many of its sites and programs.
Rabbi Menken graduated from Princeton with a degree in Computer Science. After a summer program in Yeshiva Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem before his senior year, he attended Ohr Somayach Monsey (NY) after graduation. He then furthered his studies at Beth Medrash Gavoha in Israel (“Lakewood East”), a summer in Beth Medrash Gavoha in Lakewood, NJ, and at the Mirrer Yeshiva Jerusalem.
Rabbi Yaakov Menken then founded Project Genesis in 1993, and became a pioneer of Internet-based Jewish Outreach and an analyst of global Jewish affairs. Both Rabbi Menken and his organization maintain open communication with Jews at all levels of learning and education, and Project Genesis is endorsed by Jewish leaders from across the Jewish spectrum.
Rabbi Menken joined Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in creating Cross-Currents, a journal of traditional Jewish thought, in late 2004. This award-winning journal features outstanding Orthodox rabbis and teachers. The name Cross-Currents reflects, in Rav Adlerstein’s words, the aspiration “to expose the intersection between two currents: the timeless flow of authentic Torah thought, and the ebb and tide of current affairs.”
Rabbi Menken also contributes to Times of Israel.