Rabbi Professor Naftali Rothenberg is a senior research fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute (since 1994), where he is Jewish Culture and Identity chair and editor of Identities, Journal for Jewish Culture & Identity. He also serves as the Rabbi and spiritual leader of Har Adar.

His main fields of research are: The wisdom of love; Political Philosophy; Philosophy of Halakha; Democratic education.

He has published numerous articles and 12 books. His most recent books are: Unity within Diversity: A Common Core Curriculum for Israeli Schoolchildren, (With Libat Avishay), Jerusalem 2012, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute; Wisdom by the week – the Weekly Torah Portion as an Inspiration for Thought and Creativity, New York 2012: Yeshiva University Press and The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute; Values and Citizens – Civic Democratic Education, Jerusalem 2011: The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute; Rabbi in the New World: The Influence of Rabbi J. B. Soloveitchik on Culture, Education and Jewish Thought, (with Avinoam Rosenak) Jerusalem 2011: Magnes Hebrew University Press and the VLJI; and The Wisdom of Love—Man, Woman & God in Jewish Canonical Literature, Boston 2009: Academic Studies Press.

Naftali Rothenberg is the 2011 laureate of the Liebhaber Prize for the encouragement of religious tolerance in Israel.