Israel David Fishman

Fishman was born on February 21, 1938, in Westerly, Rhode Island, the son of Minnie C. and Benjamin Fishman. They were Orthodox Jews. His father was an ordained rabbi, although he never practiced as a clergyman. In September 1946, at 8 years old, Fishman entered Yeshiva Torah Vodaath in Williamsburg, New York. At 15 years old he was hospitalized and given electric shock therapy He left Orthodox Judaism and was estranged from his family for decades due to his sexual orientation. Between 1956 and 1965 Fishman worked as office assistant. In 1958, he enrolled in the City College of New York, first as an evening student, and then enrolling full-time. He graduated with a B.A. degree, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, in Philosophy in 1965. In May 1966, he completed a Master of Library Science at the Columbia University School of Library Service. ==Librarian Career and TFGL==

Fishman was the head of technical services at the Jewish Theological Seminary library and then acquisitions librarian at Richmond College. In 1970 Fishman became the circulation librarian at Upsala College in East Orange, New Jersey, and was also an assistant professor. a section of the Social Responsibilities Round Table and the world's first gay professional association. He later wrote that it was a "shift in my consciousness—that I would no longer be afraid—that led me to bring about the birth of this Task Force, this miracle, this incredible tool/weapon for social change and liberation”. The task force's aims included: "the creation of bibliographies, revision of library classification schemes and subject headings, building and improving access to collections, and fighting job discrimination." The following year, Barbara Gittings succeeded Fishman in leadership of the TFGL. The TFGL took several actions at the 1971 ALA annual meeting in Dallas. At this time, anti-LGBTQ discrimination was widespread in the librarian profession. After librarian Michael McConnell's job offer at the University of Minnesota was rescinded due to his sexual orientation, Fishman asked the ALA to voice their opposition. The ALA declined to support McConnell, so the TFGL disrupted the annual meeting with zap actions. Fishman also introduced an LGBTQ nondiscrimination resolution at the Dallas meeting; an edited version was approved. Additionally, the TFGL held a ceremony at the 1971 ALA meeting to bestow the first Gay Book Award; only 9 people attended. It became increasingly prestigious over the next 15 years, until the ALA officially started bestowing the Gay Book Award in 1986. The award has been renamed multiple times until 2002 when it became the Stonewall Book Award-Barbara Gittings Literature Award and the Stonewall Book Award-Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award. After Upsala College denied Fishman tenure in 1973, he went on 6 months of sick leave. Fishman credited his activism in the TFGL with the decline of his librarian career. Disillusioned by library science, he left the profession. == Post-Librarian Life ==

Fishman briefly moved to Los Angeles, California to work and study at the Gay Community Services Center, returning to New York in 1973 where he became licensed in Swedish massage. For some time, Fishman ran a mail order vitamin store in Brooklyn. The speech was included as the essay "How the GLBTF Got Started" in the 1997 anthology Liberating Minds: The Stories and Professional Lives of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Librarians and Their Advocates. The volume also includes essays by Gittings and another librarian named Janet Cooper. One reviewer said that the three essays "are unusual in their openness, sharing their wounds which still seem fresh but not festering". == Personal life and death ==

In 1974, Fishman met his longtime partner, Carl Navarro, at the West Side Discussion Group, a regular gathering of gay men. After Fishman participated in the 2001 documentary Trembling Before G-d, he was reunited with his family, including his elderly father with whom he had not spoken for decades. The ALA honored him with a resolution at their annual conference. == Works and Media Appearance ==

• Fishman, Israel D. "How the GLBTF Got Started" in Norm G. Lester, ed. Liberating Minds: The Stories and Professional Lives of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Librarians and Their Advocates. (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1997), 87–88. • Fishman, Israel D. "Founding Father," in James V. Carmichael Jr., ed., Daring to Find Our Names: The Search for Lesbigay Library History (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1998), 107–12. • Israel David Fishman Papers, 1967–2002. New York Public Library. • Trembling before G-d. Directed by Sandi Simcha DuBowski, Cinephil, 2001. ==References==