Faith Amid Conflict
from the Jerusalem Post
Two years ago, Andrew Shulman’s designated location on Shabbat mornings was the auditorium of the Orthodox Congregation Beth Israel in Malden, a suburb of Boston. Shoulders covered by a tallit, Shulman followed the service in the siddur, lending his deep, ebullient voice in prayer and song. Before services ended and everybody left for lunch, Shulman would stand up before the congregation and discuss the schedule for the following week. This was among his responsibilities as the synagogue’s program director.
Shulman’s wife, Lori, and their two daughters remain in Malden, but Shulman has a new job and a new address. Since last year, he is one of four full-time Jewish chaplains stationed with the US military in Iraq.
Like the Jewish personnel they minister to, these chaplains come from diverse backgrounds. They include a Beverly Hills native whose career included stops in Israel and Massachusetts, an eloquent Pennsylvanian with a history of family military service and a New Yorker who witnessed the horrors of war on a road near Baghdad. In separate e-mail and telephone interviews, three of these men – Shulman, Jon Cutler and Ira Ehrenpreis – discussed the destinations their respective paths have led them to in Iraq. (A fourth, David Goldstrom, did not respond to a request for an e-mail interview.)