[4] Zaken earned his BA, MA, cum laude, and PhD (2003) in Islamic Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Among his influential teachers were Moshe Sharon,[7] Benjamin Z. Kedar and the late semitic linguist Gideon Goldenberg [he], with whom he published the Book of Ruth in Neo-Aramaic.

[48][49][50][51] He constructed the final draft for the cabinet resolution,[52] which was used by the State Attorney in the Supreme Court to repel the appeal against the government, in the years 2001–2003.

ISFI provided political and cultural resources, ideas and tools, for Jewish and pro-Israel student activists throughout the US and Canada, through which Israeli oriented activities and the message of Israel could be promoted in US campuses.

In 1982, as Chief-Editor of the students' newspaper at the Hebrew University Pi-Ha'aton (פי האתון [he]) ("The donkey's mouth", taken from the Book of Numbers, 22:28), one of his main journalistic achievements was the unearthing of an old photograph from 1948, taken by Arabs and showing mutilated faces and bodies of Jewish soldiers that were part of an army unit that later became known as "Nabi Daniel Caravan" (שיירת נבי דניאל).

[55][non-primary source needed] As a scholar, Zaken has been a frequent guest in radio and TV programs, speaking mostly on the Kurds and the minorities in the Middle East, and has been interviewed by newspapers as an expert on these subjects.