The story of The Book Smugglers began 25 years ago when Dr. Fishman was invited to consult on items discovered in a former church in Vilnius.  It has been hailed as "first rate scholarship that pulses with the beat of a most human heart" and "illuminates the little known saga of the courageous efforts to save the precious libraries, manuscripts, and archives of the Jews of Eastern Europe."

A native New Yorker, Dr. Fishman is Professor, Jewish History at the Jewish Theological Seminary and has taught at Brandeis and Bar-Ilan Universities and Russian State University in Moscow. He is the author of numerous books and articles on the history and culture of East European Jewry and is a member of the Academic Committee of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.