`Time to take a stand,' and friends join in.

Byline: Dianne Williamson

COLUMN: DIANNE WILLIAMSON

They're Worcester boys all, raised in the backyards of Newton Square and molded by the rabbis of their beloved Temple Emanuel, who inspired them to live meaningful lives.

They're grown and scattered elsewhere now, professional men with families and busy careers, but these eight childhood friends have never forgotten their roots. Every summer, they gather for a weekend of wine and reminiscence. Among them are a scientist, a photographer, a union organizer and a vice president for "Sesame Street."

There's also a rabbi who lost his vision gradually, when the men were boys. Dennis Shulman is now blind, but none of them have ever heard him bemoan his fate.

"He's one of the most remarkable people I've ever met," said Ron Joseph, of West Newton. "What he's been able to accomplish despite his handicap is amazing. I've known him since kindergarten, and I've never once heard him complain about not being able to see."

This past July, the men gathered in a Maine town near Portland. It was there Rabbi Shulman told them for the first time that he was considering a run for the United States Congress.

"At first we all thought he was a little crazy," Mr. Joseph said. "But then we talked it through, and we realized that if anyone can do it, he can."

Rabbi Shulman, a Democrat, declared his candidacy last month for a seat in New Jersey's 5th Congressional District, which abuts New York City. He's taking on third-term Republican Scott Garrett, a social conservative whose politics "trouble" the rabbi, he said.

"He votes against stem cell research, a woman's right to choose, and expanding the state Children's Health Insurance Program," said Rabbi Shulman, 57, who lives in Demarest, N.J. "That's why I'm running, because what we do matters. If the country keeps going in this path, we're going to commit the worst sin we can commit - forgetting what we represent to the world. Everything else I've been doing is leading me to this moment."

His unusual life story has garnered positive press and - to his slight chagrin - the media moniker of the "blind rabbi," as though the tag defines him. It doesn't, of course. Raised on June Street in Worcester, his father, Israel, was a pharmacist on Park Avenue; his grandfather, a cobbler on Water Street. He attended May Street School and Chandler Junior High and could read print until the fourth or fifth grade, but by the time he earned a scholarship to Worcester Academy, he was blind.

"It wasn't devastating because it was gradual," he said. "I never was teased, ever, in the entire time growing up in Worcester. Part of that was because I was hanging around with very decent people. I have an extraordinary group of friends and felt very cared for and supported. Worcester was a wonderful place to grow up. It really was a community."

He attended Brandeis University and earned a Ph.D. in psychology at Harvard. He started a practice in psychoanalysis in Manhattan in 1979 and later moved to New Jersey. He was ordained a rabbi in 2003. He and his wife, Pam, an obstetrician, have two grown daughters.

"It's time for me to take a stand and apply what I've learned on a more public level," he said. Asked what role religion should play in politics, he said, "I'm an advocate for the separation of church and state. But I do believe, for me, that the great literature of ethics and the Bible are guiding forces in the way I think about public problems."

His race is uphill but not quixotic. He has three full-time staffers and has raised more than $50,000 within the first month of the campaign.

And he has a loyal core of volunteers. Dubbed "Worcester Men for Denn," one of them has already held a candidate's night in New York. Mr. Joseph is organizing two fundraisers Dec. 13 and 14 in Boston. "It's a long shot, but with a lot of hard work he has a chance," Mr. Joseph said.

Asked about the men's devotion to the rabbi, he said they were fortunate to share a lifelong friendship.

"It's a Worcester thing," he said simply. "We're all going to do what we can."

Contact Dianne Williamson via e-mail at [e-mail].