“Next Year in the White House: Barack Obama’s First Presidential Seder.”
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
AGAWAM — A new children’s book about traditions, learning from other cultures and bringing people together was released this month, just in time for Passover.
“Next Year in the White House: Barack Obama’s First Presidential Seder,” by Richard Michelson was released by PJ Library, a subscription-based program created by the Harold Grinspoon Foundation that provides families with free Jewish children’s books and music. For “Next Year in the White House,” the program partnered with Penguin Random House’s Crown Books for Young Readers.
“We are so thankful to author Richard Michelson, illustrator E.B. Lewis and the entire team behind this beautiful book who brought it to life,” said PJ Library Communications Manager Naomi Barnett.
Barnett said, “There have been official holiday events at the White House for a very long time: Christmas dinner in 1800, an Easter event in 1878. But the first official White House-hosted Seder,” which is the traditional ritual meal of Passover, “wasn’t until 2009.”
Passover is the observance of the deliverance of the ancient Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt. The book shares the story of a Passover Seder observed on the presidential campaign trail by then-Senator Obama and three of his Jewish staffers — Eric Lesser, Herbie Ziskend and Arun Chaudhary — and Obama’s vow to bring the tradition to the White House.
Lesser, who has since served as a state senator from Longmeadow and is now working in the private sector, recalled, “It was April 2008, in the middle of the Pennsylvania primary. It was one of the most intense parts of the campaign and me and Herbie and Arun knew we weren’t going to be able to travel home for Passover, so we just decided to do it in the basement of the hotel. I mentioned it to Obama, casually on the plane and he said, ‘I’ll try to come.’ And we just thought, you know, he’s being nice.”
He continued, “Passover comes, and [Obama] had been campaigning in Philadelphia and did a train from there to Harrisburg, [Pennsylvania] making a bunch of stops along the way. He arrived [at the hotel] really late, probably 9 p.m. We were about to get started and he popped his head in and said he wanted to join us.”
Michelson said the future president got nothing out of it politically, particularly as there were no press present and most people did not even know about the Seder until more than a year later.
At the end of a Seder, Lesser explained that a traditional toast is to say, “Next year in Jerusalem.” He said Obama followed that toast with, “Next year in the White House,” which is how the book got its name.
A year later, Lesser said he was working in the West Wing across from the Oval Office. “[Obama] popped his head in and said, ‘Hey, Lesser. We doing the Seder?’” Taken aback, Lesser responded, “’Um, I don’t know, sir.’ And he said, ‘Well, we said next year in the White House and it’s the next year and we’re in the White House, so we’re doing it.’” Lesser explained that Obama was adamant that the people from Harrisburg attended the Seder in the White House. “He wanted the same crew that was with him at the lowest point to celebrate with him at a high point,” Lesser said.
When asked why he thought Obama wanted to continue celebrating Passover throughout his presidency, Lesser said the story of Passover “links an ancient story of the Hebrews to the modern story of African Americans in this country. It has a resonance for oppressed peoples around the world.”
Obama spoke about celebrating the Seder in a speech he made in Jerusalem in 2013.
“I wanted my daughters to experience the Haggadah and the story at the center of Passover that makes this time of year so powerful,” Obama said. “It’s the story of centuries of slavery and years of wandering in the desert. A story of perseverance amidst persecution and faith in God and the Torah.” He went on to add that it is the story of “the universal human experience, with all of its suffering but also all of its salvation.”
Winnie Sandler Grinspoon, president of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, which runs PJ Library, said in a press release, “‘Next Year in the White House’ not only teaches young readers the importance of embracing tradition and honoring one’s culture, but also how powerful it can be to share these parts of ourselves with others. This book provides a beautiful example of people of different faiths and traditions coming together to find common ground in the power of stories.”
Michelson said, “It was an important story [to tell] at this time. I grew up during the civil rights era when Jews and [Black people] were working side by side, and that has disintegrated over the years.”
Michelson first learned about the impromptu campaign trail Seder about a year after it happened, when Lesser mentioned it in a newspaper interview. The author said he quickly forgot about it, but a couple of years ago, PJ Library approached him about creating a children’s book based on the event. He had previously worked with the program and several of his books focused on themes of Judaism and race.
Michelson said that he took an approach to “Next Year in the White House” that is unusual for a children’s book. Rather than write the book in chronological order, he began the story with a flashback. By introducing the audience to the book with the pageantry of the White House and Obama’s children, Malia and Sasha, Michelson hoped to catch the attention of young readers. The book also ends at the same Seder with children engaging in the tradition or searching for a hidden piece of matzah.
Michelson said traditions are a major theme throughout the book, both keeping existing traditions and adding new ones. Obama added his own tradition to the Seder. Lesser said, “After we would finish reading the story of the Exodus, we would go around the table and each read a paragraph of the Emancipation Proclamation.” For his part, Michelson said he hopes reading “Next Year in the White House” will become a Seder tradition for families.
“Next Year in the White House” was released on March 4 and sent to PJ Library subscribers ahead of Passover, which runs from April 12 to April 20. For more information about the book or about PJ Library, visit pjlibrary.org.
