Rabbi on the Roof: N.J. Candidate Gets Taste of Washington

The subject line for the NJDC e-mail was "A blind rabbi walks into a bar." When a campaign staffer tells Shulman this, he bursts into delighted giggles. He speaks with a lisp. He is stocky, full-bearded and approachable, the later trait an excellent one for a political candidate or a rabbi, which he became in 2003.

Before that, he was a clinical psychologist, and long before that, a boy growing up in Massachusetts who lost his sight as a teen through a degenerative nerve disorder. He lives in the town of Demarest with his wife, Pam, an obstetrician. They have two grown daughters.

Talking to fans on Tacelosky's freshly varnished roof deck, he is a quick-change artist:

The psychologist:"Are you two boyfriend girlfriend, or just good friends?"

The parent: How long has your son been walking? . . . Since 10 months? Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."

The rabbi:"It's like this bar mitzvah I did where there was gefilte fish sushi." (He's an associate rabbi at Chavurah Beth Shalom in Alpine.) And later: "This deck would be a great place for a sukkah ," the temporary structure built for the harvest festival of Sukkot.

Tacelosky likes the sukkah idea. He is not technically Jewish yet. He is planning on converting later this month.

He introduces his friend, Virginia Lamprecht. She's not Jewish, either. "Prior to being involved in the Jewish crowd, I was involved in the magic crowd," Tacelosky explains, which is how he knows Lamprecht.

Jews and gentiles and magicians alike, all on this rooftop, all intrigued by the blind rabbi from New Jersey, the one who was inspired to run for Congress by a quote from theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel: "To speak about God and remain silent on Vietnam is blasphemous."

In the primaries he opposed a man with the last name Bacon.

"I'm really intrigued by his evolution as a professional," from psychologist to rabbi to politico, says Jessica Rosenblum, a publicist.

Shulman's background works "as a character witness," says grad student Paul Adler. It assures Adler that Shulman wouldn't play traditional politics.