Next Year in the White House: Barack Obama's First Presidential Seder

(Hardback)

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The true story of how a small Seder dinner on the campaign trail inspired Barack Obama to bring the tradition into the White House and host the first ever Presidential Passover celebration. The true story of how a small Seder dinner on the campaign trail inspired Barack Obama to bring the tradition into the White House and host the first ever Presidential Passover celebration. In 1800, President John Adams held the first formal Christmas dinner at the newly built White House. In 1878, President Rutherford B. Hayes observed Easter with a public "Egg Roll." But it wasn't until 2009 that a US president officially celebrated Passover. A year earlier, on the campaign trail, three staffers had to get creative in order to host a Seder dinner. They gathered in a hotel basement, joined by candidate Barack Obama. They made the most of their surroundings and modest dinner, shared the stories and rituals of the holiday, and found connections between their communities. They made a toast and a promise to a future, grander celebration- next year in the White House. For the first time, this story is told for picture book readers by award-winning author Richard Michelson and lauded illustrator EB Lewis in this special partnership with PJ Library.

Author Bio

Richard Michelsonis apoet, childrens book author, and art dealer whose childrens books have been listed among the 10 Best Books of the Year by The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and The New Yorker; and among the 12 Best Books of the Decade by Amazon.com. He has been a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award, the Harlem Book Fest Wheatley Award, and the National Jewish Book Award, as well as receiving two Skipping Stones Multicultural Book Awards, a National Parenting Publication Gold Medal and an International Reading Association Teachers Choice Award. In 2009 Michelson received both a Sydney Taylor Gold and Silver Medal from the Association of Jewish Librarians, the only author so honored in AJLs 50 year history.Michelson received his 2nd Silver Medal in 2017 and his 2ndGold Medal in 2018. Additionally, Michelson won the 2017 National Jewish Book Award.
Michelson is the owner of R. Michelson Galleries, the host of Northampton Poetry Radio, and the current Poet Laureate of Northampton Massachusetts.

E.B. Lewis has illustrated over seventy books for children, including the New York Times Best Illustrated Book Award, Kirkus Best Illustrated Book Award, and the Golden Kite Honor Award winner Jabari Asims Preaching to the Chickens and theCaldecott Honor Award Winner, Jacqueline Woodsons Coming on Home Soon. He is also a five-time Coretta Scott King winner.
Presently, Lewis teaches at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He is also a member of The Society of Illustrators in New York City, and an artist member of Salamagundi Art Club of New York.