Customer Profiles

    You expect a man named Rabbi Shlomo Shulman to be shlumpy. I am constantly surprised that he’s handsome– a strong jaw peppered by a Clooney-esque five o’clock shadow, an expressive pout. When he opens his mouth, though, his voice does not sound like George Clooney.

“Welcome, welcome!”

When he buys my coffee, he says, “Each figure in the Torah represents a different major character trait, and Moses’s was generosity. That is why Jews have laws about charity. You know, the Jews were the first people to care about human rights.” He fiddles with his straw wrapper.

I try to ask him about himself. Shlomo was born in Cleveland. He has nine children, a lovely wife. And did I know? Einstein, Dustin Hoffman, Diane Feinstein, Hank Aarons? All Jewish. “Inventor of penicillin? Jewish. First woman physician? Jewish girl. Jews aren’t satisfied with being good. We want to be great. We’re half a percent in the U.S., but we’ve won half of the Oscars and Nobel prizes. How do you like that? God commands us to be great, and so we are driven to be so. Surely you don’t think that’s a coincidence?” 

 “It certainly is an incredible correlation.” I say carefully. “So how are you liking your new Persian rug?"


 His Adam’s apple bobs up and down.  “If you read the Torah carefully, the stories all have lessons. We believe that everything in the Torah has meaning for how we should act. Not including buying antique rugs, though!” 

“Meanings that we interpret, though, right?” We then talk about how the images in rugs have a lot to do with the kinds of stories that are in the hebrew bible. Many rugs actually feature patterns that are stories from the Torah. It's an enlightening conversation.