Dennis Shulman for U.S. Congress: Sensible Leadership for New Jersey’s 5th District

Renowned author, educator, and clinical psychologist, Dr. Dennis G. Shulman has dedicated his life to serving all segments of the community. Blind since childhood, he has overcome significant obstacles to earn an Ivy League diploma and rise to the top of his profession — and become an ordained rabbi.

Dr. Shulman is running for Congress in New Jersey’s Fifth Congressional District because he believes fundamental change is needed in Washington.

“I am running for Congress not as a career politician, but as a concerned citizen,” says Shulman. “I believe that Congress could use more candor and more people with diverse life experiences. We keep sending career politicians to Washington and what do we have to show for it? A big mess. It may very well take a blind man to show Congress the light.”

Dennis has spent his entire life confronting challenges – and surmounting them. Growing up working class and losing his sight at a young age, some predicted that Dennis would never graduate high school. During high school, Dennis worked in a toy factory to help his family pay the bills. However, neither he nor his parents accepted that anything would keep him from achieving the American Dream, and Dennis’ success in high school led to acceptance to college.

He graduated from Brandeis in the class of 1972 Magna cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa. That same year Dennis’ volunteer activities on behalf of the developmentally disabled earned him a Special White House Commendation for Outstanding Humanitarian Service and The David Aranow Award for Outstanding Achievement in Social Welfare.

Dennis next moved to Harvard University to begin work toward a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and Public Practice. Just two years into the program Dennis won a Training Fellowship from the National Institute for Mental Health and married his college sweetheart, medical student Pam Tropper. He also began what has become an extended series of teaching positions, professional publications, postdoctoral studies and speaking engagements.

Graduating from Harvard, Dennis began his career as a clinical psychologist and as an educator, including more than a decade at Fordham. In 1997, Dennis founded the National Training Program in Contemporary Psychoanalysis at The National Institute for the Psychotherapies, which he continues to serve.

In 2003, Dennis was ordained as a Rabbi. That same year he published his book, The Genius of Genesis: A Psychoanalyst and Rabbi Examines the First Book of the Bible. In addition to continuing to treat patients in his psychological practice, Dr. Shulman currently serves as the Associate Rabbi of Chavurah Beth Shalom, a synagogue in Alpine.

Dr. Shulman has lived in New Jersey’s Fifth Congressional District for more than 25 years. He has been married to his wife, Pam, an obstetrician, for 33 years. They are proud parents of two adult daughters, Holly and Julie.