David Fishman

Professor of ºÚÁÏÉç History

Department: ºÚÁÏÉç History, Project Judaica

Phone: (212) 678-8001

Email: dafishman@jtsa.edu

Building Room: Brush 411

Office Hours: By Appointment

BIOGRAPHY

BA, Yeshiva University; AM and PhD, Harvard University

David E. Fishman is a professor of ºÚÁÏÉç History at ºÚÁÏÉç, teaching courses in modern ºÚÁÏÉç history. Dr. Fishman also serves as director of Project Judaica, JTS’s program in Ukraine, which is based at the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. He directs its ºÚÁÏÉç Archival Survey, which publishes guides to ºÚÁÏÉç archival materials in Ukraine.

Dr. Fishman is the author of numerous books and articles on the history and culture of East European Jewry. His , (ForeEdge, 2017) was winner of the National ºÚÁÏÉç Book Award in the Holocaust category and has been translated into ten languages. Previous monographs include Russia’s First Modern Jews (New York University Press, 1996) and The Rise of Modern Yiddish Culture (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005). Dr. Fishman is the coeditor (with Burton Visotzky) of From Mesopotamia to Modernity: Ten Introductions to ºÚÁÏÉç History and Literature (Westview Press, 1999), and edited two volumes of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s Yiddish writings, Droshes un ksovim (Ktav, 2009 and Orthodox Union, 2021). In addition to his scholarly activity, Dr. Fishman compiles and edits the bi-weekly The War in Ukraine: ºÚÁÏÉç News on Substack.

For 15 years (1988–2003), Dr. Fishman was editor in chief of YIVO-Bleter, the Yiddish-language scholarly journal of the YIVO Institute for ºÚÁÏÉç Research. He is a member of the Academic Committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and serves on the editorial board of the journal ±Ê´Ç±ô¾±²Ô.Ìý

Grants, Fellowships, and Awards

  • Kronhill Visiting Scholar, YIVO Institute for ºÚÁÏÉç Research, Spring 2015
  • Member, Academic Committee, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2014–present
  • Fulbright Fellowship, Vilnius Yiddish Institute, Lithuania, 2007–2008
  • Lady Davis Visiting Professorship, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, May–June 2004 and May–June 2005

PUBLICATIONS

  • . Lebanon, NH: ForeEdge, 2017.
  • Nazi-Looted ºÚÁÏÉç Archives in Moscow: A Guide to ºÚÁÏÉç Historical and Cultural Collections in the Russian State Military Archive. Coeditor with Mark Kupovetsky and Vladimir Kuzelenkov. Scranton, PA: University of Scranton Press, in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and ºÚÁÏÉç, 2010. 
  • Embers Plucked from the Fire: The Rescue of ºÚÁÏÉç Culture Treasure in Vilna, YIVO, 2009.
  • Yiddish Drashos and Writings (in Yiddish) by Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Editor. Ktav, 2009.
  • Yiddish Language and Culture in the Soviet Union (in Russian). Coeditor. Moscow: RGGU Press, 2009.
  • . Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005.
  • . Coeditor with Burton Visotzky. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999.
  • . Editor. New York: New York University Press, 1996. 

Lectures

  • “Vilna: The Jerusalem of Lithuania”
  • “The Shtetl: Myth and Reality”
  • “Yiddish Words and ºÚÁÏÉç Values”
  • “Hasidism and Its Opponents”
  • “The Rescue of ºÚÁÏÉç Cultural Treasures During the Holocaust”
  • “The Rabbis and the Russian Revolution”
  • “Religion and Secularism in Early Zionism”
  • “The East European Roots of Modern Israel”
  • “The Jews and the Soviet Union: A Love-Hate Relationship”
  • “Contemporary Russian Jews: A Community on Three Continents”
  • Available to speak about ºÚÁÏÉç history, ºÚÁÏÉç religious and political movements, Yiddish culture, and Jews and Slavs