During World War II, he fought in the Pacific theater and was discharged from the US Navy in 1945 after the surrender of Japan.

Shulman was very affected by the Holocaust, and decided to help smuggle Jews from post-Holocaust Europe into Mandatory Palestine.

In November that year, he was asked by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to help establish an Israeli Navy.

[1] During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, he commanded a blockade of the Gaza Strip and the capture of Ein Gedi on the Dead Sea.

[1] In 1949, he became the second commander of the Navy, after Gershon Zak decided to return to a career in education.