Shulman Aims To Be First Blind Rabbi in Congress

WASHINGTON — Running for Congress is a daunting choice for almost anyone. For Rabbi Dennis Shulman, the decision to challenge an incumbent Republican in northern New Jersey seemed almost obvious.

"It's the right trajectory for my life," Rabbi Shulman says.

It's also a trajectory that's never been charted. Not only would Rabbi Shulman be the first ordained rabbi ever elected to the House of Representatives, he'd be the first blind man since 1935 to serve in Congress. For good measure, he's also a nationally recognized clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst.

Rabbi Shulman, a Democrat, will officially declare his candidacy next week in New Jersey's 5th Congressional District, which abuts New York City and covers the entire state border from east to west.

His unique life story — and the campaign contributions and press attention it could attract — is key to his chances of turning over a seat that's been in Republican hands for decades. The incumbent is Rep. Scott Garrett, a third-term congressman who won reelection by an 11-point margin in 2006 but who Rabbi Shulman and other Democrats say is too conservative for a moderate district. A social conservative and a fiscal hawk, Mr. Garrett has drawn criticism in the district for his votes against expanding the state Children's Health Insurance Program and against funding for embryonic stem cell research, as well as his support for the Iraq war.

"The person I'm running against is very much not representing the district and has only been able to do so because he's been able to keep a low profile," Rabbi Shulman, 57, said in a recent interview at his home in Demarest, N.J., a small, leafy suburb where he has lived with his wife, Pam, for more than 20 years.

Born and raised in Worcester, Mass., Rabbi Shulman gradually lost his eyesight during childhood, to the point where by the time he entered high school, he was totally blind. "I didn't carry a cane until I was 16. I probably should have carried a cane when I was 15," he recalls with a grin.

His father was a pharmacist who struggled with psychiatric problems, and Rabbi Shulman says his family went from the middle class to "the only Jewish family that I knew in Worcester, Mass., that didn't have a car."

After earning a full scholarship to the Worcester Academy, Rabbi Shulman attended Brandeis University as an undergraduate and then earned his Ph.D. in clinical psychology and public practice at Harvard.

Often smiling through a short, white beard, Rabbi Shulman betrays no bitterness about his blindness. "I never got teased," he says, later adding: "I don't remember a single day where I've said, 'Oh, I wish I could see.'"

That isn't to say he didn't struggle. In his most vivid horror story — sure to be a favorite on the campaign trail — he recalls proudly handing in a 25-page, type-written chapter of his graduate thesis, only to have his supervisor tell him it was blank.

"Twenty-five pages of blank. The cartridge slipped," Rabbi Shulman said. And, then, erupting in laughter, he adds: "That's when you know you've had a bad day!"

Turning serious, he says his experiences growing up blind and with little money have informed not only his professional and religious views, but also his politics. "I think it's important to be someone who knows something about suffering and struggling," he said. "I'm a kid who, in many ways, the odds were against me."

He started a practice in psychoanalysis in Manhattan in 1979 and later moved to New Jersey, along the way adding teaching and writing to his list of vocations. By the mid-1990s, he had taken a much greater interest in religion and Judaism, and soon thereafter, he embarked on his second major career move: becoming a rabbi. That choice, like his decision to run for Congress, was clear in retrospect. "Most of my friends knew I was going to become a rabbi before I did," he recalls.

He was ordained in 2003, and now serves as a rabbinical associate at Chavurah Beth Shalom in nearby Alpine, N.J., an unaffiliated synagogue that Rabbi Shulman says is "essentially Reform" in denomination.

As both a spiritual and political guide, he cites Abraham Joshua Heschel, the famed Polish rabbi who escaped Nazi Germany during World War II and became a social and political activist in America, marching with the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala. "Heschel said to speak about God and not Vietnam is blasphemy," Rabbi Shulman said. "It's hard to talk about Heschel, and it's hard for me to read the Hebrew bible, the Bible, without realizing the message is clear."

He continued: "I take the Bible seriously but not literally. It's a serious message. The message is that we have a responsibility to do better."

When it comes to politics, Rabbi Shulman calls himself "a sensible Democrat" and says he plans to run "a mainstream message." From Iraq, where he supports a withdrawal of American troops, to domestic policy, he advocates positions that fall well within the party's norm. He is most passionate about stem-cell research, an issue that he says has become personal for him as he has watched patients in his psychology practice and members of his synagogue suffer from Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease. "When Garrett takes a quote moral high ground on stem-cell research, it appalls me," he said.

Despite Rabbi Shulman's enthusiasm, the GOP isn't showing much concern for the seat. A spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee went so far as to say a Garrett victory in 2008 was "inevitable." "He's delivering for the district, and he's been an independent voice in Washington," the spokeswoman, Julie Shutley, said.

Thus far, Rabbi Shulman is one of two Democrats in the wealthy 5th District who have declared plans to run next year. The other is Camille Abate, who ran on an anti-war platform in 2006 and lost a bitter primary fight to the eventual nominee, Paul Aronsohn.

With the 2007 elections over, other candidates may jump into the race. Party leaders have yet to pick sides, but a spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee praised Rabbi Shulman's efforts to get organized early and begin raising money. "Dennis Shulman has a strong campaign coming out of the gate and will hold Congressman Garrett accountable for his failed record in Congress," the spokeswoman, Carrie James, said.

Rabbi Shulman said his friends and family — he has two adult daughters — urged him to run. One of his top supporters is a former adviser to Mayor Bloomberg, Esther Fuchs, who is now a professor of political science at Columbia University.

Like the candidate himself, Ms. Fuchs sees Rabbi Shulman's run for Congress as a "natural progression" in his life and career, despite his lack of experience in politics. "He's not one of the traditional egoists who go into politics for basically power and control," she said. At the same time, she said, "he also has the stamina and the drive and the personality to see a race like this through from beginning to the end. And," she quickly added, "to win."

That last part won't be easy for a man facing an incumbent in a district that has leaned Republican for years, a point that Ms. Fuchs readily concedes. "Don't get me wrong, this is an uphill battle," she said. "And if I didn't know Dennis so well, it's not like I would just encourage any person."

As for Rabbi Shulman, a win next year would add the title of congressman to an already crowded resume. He insists that his repeated career "additions" — as he calls them — aren't the result of a short attention span. "I'm not trying to get rid of my other jobs," he says with a laugh. "I like those other jobs!"

And while he acknowledges that the oddity of a blind rabbi running for Congress may help him, "I hope people don't see the story as an end in itself," he says.

As a rationale for running, he returns to Heschel and the idea of a calling. "I kid people when they say, 'Well, why are you running?'" he says. "And I say, well, Abraham Joshua Heschel made me do it. The message is very clear for me."