Avis Clamitz was born in Chicago in 1908. She had grown up in Emil G. Hirsch's Sinai Congregation. Fascinated by the towering Rabbi, Avis Clamitz later recalled that as a child, "she would creep up in the front to listen, to devour" his words. His "formative influence" propelled her to plan a career in Jewish education. That quest, led her, at age 16, to Hebrew Union College. The year was 1925. The semester before, another female student had left HUC for New York City. She found herself the only female there. Wanting to become an expert at Jewish religious education...not think[ing] of becoming a lady rabbi...she matriculated in the preparatory department.

After a successful first year, she returned as a regular student , a candidate for Bachelor of Hebrew Letters. She did not seek ordination. She claimed "I felt that as a Jewish educator in the synagogue I could do as much as a rabbi." Shortly before her graduation, she married R. Charles E. Shulman.