The blockade on the publication of the scrolls effected by Strugnell and other members of Harvard's academic community was broken by the combined efforts of Hershel Shanks of the Biblical Archaeology Review (who had personally waged a 15-year campaign to release the scrolls) and Ben Zion Wacholder of Hebrew Union College, along with his student, Martin Abegg, who published the first facsimile of the suppressed scrolls in 1991. Strugnell insisted that he tried to publish the scrolls as quickly as he could but that his team was the limiting factor.
The publication of the scrolls was restricted by members of Harvard's academic community, but Hershel Shanks, Ben Zion Wacholder, and Martin Abegg were able to overcome this obstacle in 1991. Strugnell claimed that his team was the limiting factor preventing faster publication.