Dr. Netanel Fisher serves as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Bar-Ilan University (since 2025). Concurrently, he serves as a Fellow in the Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Fellows Program  (2025–2026)

Dr. Fisher completed his PhD in Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2012). Following his doctorate, he was a research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor, and the Open University of Israel. Before joining Bar-Ilan, he served as Chair of the Public Policy Program at the Academic Center for Law and Science in Hod HaSharon. Dr. Fisher has received research grants from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture (MFJC) and the Israel Institute and won the 2017 Best Article Award from Middle Eastern Studies (with Dr. Avi Shilon).

Alongside his academic work, he chaired the Ganim Community Council in Jerusalem (2013–2022) and advised cabinet ministers and Knesset members in his fields of expertise. As such, he served on the advisory team to the Ministry of Religious Services that drafted the government conversion-reform bill in 2022.

Dr. Fisher research focuses on religion–state relations, Israeli politics, and Jewish peoplehood, with emphasis on Israel’s conversion policy, ethnicity, migration, and aliyah. Dr. Fisher teaches courses on religion and politics, migration and aliyah, and local government.

The obituary he wrote about Rabbi Jonathan Sacks can be seen here.