Rabbi Dennis Shulman, Demarast, New Jersey, is running for Congress in the NJ Fifth Congressional District.
http://shulmanforcongress.wordpress....
One cannot but notice that he is a rabbi. He is also a blind rabbi.
But not really so blind.
The present congressional representative from New Jersey's Fifth District is Scott Garrett who, according to the good rabbi, keeps a low political profile in his district, which is characterized as moderate Republican, but votes to the right of Bush.
Rabbi Shulman is on the Kollel faculty of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (the Reform rabbinic seminary in New York City; and a member of the senior faculty, a training analyst and clinical supervisor at psychoanalytic institutes in New York, Minnesota and Missouri.
Did I mention that he is also a clinical psychologist-psychoanalyst?
Well, he is.
http://www.mychavurah.org/...
Shulman has some impressive academic credentials: Brandeis University, class of 1972 Magna cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and Public Practice from Harvard University. While at Harvard he married his college sweetheart, medical student Pam Tropper.
http://shulmanforcongress.wordpress....
He has also written a couple of books on the bible (which are probably academic and boring but that doesn't mean he wouldn't be a good congressman): The Genius of Genesis: A Psychoanalyst and Rabbi Examines the First Book of the Bible, published in June 2003; Walking with Moses: A Weekly Guided Tour of the First Five Books of the Bible, 2004.
Shulman also serves as the Associate Rabbi of Chavurah Beth Shalom, a progressive synagogue in Alpine.
Blue America loves the Rabbi:
....let me say something about northernmost New Jersey's 5th congressional...that state's absolutely worst congressman, Scott Garrett, whose ultra-reactionary voting record...is worse than Mean Jean Schmidt's, Denny Hastert's or Virgil Goode's! NJ-05 is a high income, socially moderate, suburban district that voted 57% for Bush in 2004-- and has been sorry ever since.... Garrett will be seeking his 4th term next year; his winning percentage has decreased every year since he was first elected as more and more voters saw how utterly unsuitable his extreme right wing bent is. How unsuitable? Every single member of the New Jersey congressional delegation-- Democrats and Republicans-- signed a letter to Bush opposing oil drilling off the New Jersey Coast... except one: Garrett. It gets worse. Garrett was the only northern congressman of either party to vote against extending the Voting Rights Act. All the Democrats need to beat him is the right candidate. And this year they've found him: Dennis Shulman...
Dennis is a progressive Democrat. He is also a spiritually-inclined rabbi, a clinical psychologist, an author, a drummer-- and a blind man. When he says "We can do better," he's talking from experience....
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/...
Thanks to this morning's edition of Young Turks for turning me on to this guy.
And, why not a blind rabbi?
Why not?
Especially because he is a drummer. Who marches to a different beat.