(NAME-MCE) Ba'shana ha' ba'ah b'Yerushalayim

[Bill Howe]

March 26, 2010 – NY Times


‘Next Year in the White House’: The Obama Seder


By JODI KANTOR
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/jodi_kantor/in
dex.html?inline=nyt-per> 


WASHINGTON — One evening in April 2008, three low-level staff members from
the Obama presidential campaign — a baggage handler, a videographer and an
advance man — gathered in the windowless basement of a Pennsylvania hotel
for an improvised Passover
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/p/passover/ind
ex.html?inline=nyt-classifier>  Seder. 

The day had been long, the hour was late, and the young men had not been
home in months. So they had cadged some matzo and Manischewitz wine, hoping
to create some semblance of the holiday. 

Suddenly they heard a familiar voice. “Hey, is this the Seder?” Barack Obama
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/i
ndex.html?inline=nyt-per>  asked, entering the room. 

So begins the story of the Obama Seder, now one of the newest, most intimate
and least likely of White House traditions. When Passover begins at sunset
on Monday evening, Mr. Obama and about 20 others will gather for a ritual
that neither the rabbinic sages nor the founding fathers would recognize. 

In the Old Family Dining Room, under sparkling chandeliers and portraits of
former first ladies, the mostly Jewish and African-American guests will
recite prayers and retell the biblical story of slavery and liberation,
ending with the traditional declaration “Next year in Jerusalem.” (Never
mind the current chill in the administration’s relationship with Israel.) 

Top aides like David Axelrod
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/david_axelrod/
index.html?inline=nyt-per>  and Valerie Jarrett
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/j/valerie_jarret
t/index.html?inline=nyt-per>  will attend, but so will assistants like
24-year-old Herbie Ziskend. White House chefs will prepare Jewish
participants’ family recipes, even rendering chicken fat — better known as
schmaltz — for just the right matzo ball flavor. 

If last year is any guide, Malia and Sasha Obama will take on the duties of
Jewish children, asking four questions about the night’s purpose — along
with a few of their own — and scrambling to find matzo hidden in the
gleaming antique furniture. 

That event was the first presidential Seder, and also probably “the first
time in history that gefilte fish had been placed on White House dishware,”
said Eric Lesser, the former baggage handler, who organizes each year’s
ritual. 

As in many Jewish households, the Obama Seder seems to take on new meaning
each year, depending on what is happening in the world and in participants’
lives (for this group, the former is often the same as the latter). 

The first one took place at the bleakest point of the campaign, the long
prelude to the Pennsylvania primary, which was dominated by a furor over Mr.
Obama’s former pastor. “We were in the desert, so to speak,” remembered Arun
Chaudhary, then and now Mr. Obama’s videographer, who grew up attending
Seders with his half-Jewish, half-Indian family. 

No one led the proceedings; everyone took turns reading aloud. Mr. Obama had
brought Reggie Love
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/reggie_love/in
dex.html?inline=nyt-per> , his personal aide, Ms. Jarrett and Eric Whitaker,
another close friend, all African-American. Jennifer Psaki, the traveling
press secretary, and Samantha Tubman, a press assistant, filtered in.
Neither had ever been to a Seder, but they knew the Exodus story, Ms. Psaki
from Catholic school and Ms. Tubman from childhood Sundays at black
churches. 

They peppered the outnumbered Jews at the table with questions, which the
young men sometimes struggled to answer. “We’re not exactly crack Hebrew
scholars,” said Mr. Lesser, now an assistant to Mr. Axelrod. 

Participants remember the evening as a rare moment of calm, an escape from
the din of airplanes and rallies. As the tale of the Israelites unfolded,
the campaign team half-jokingly identified with their plight — one day, they
too would be free. At the close of the Seder, Mr. Obama added his own ending
— “Next year in the White House!” 

Indeed, the group, with a few additions, has now made the Seder an Executive
Mansion tradition. (No one considered inviting prominent rabbis or other
Jewish leaders; it is a private event.) 

But maintaining the original humble feel has been easier said than done. 

Ms. Tubman and Desirée Rogers
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/desire_rogers/
index.html?inline=nyt-per> , then the White House social secretary, tried to
plan an informal meal last year, with little or even no wait staff required.
White House ushers reacted with what seemed like polite horror. The
president and the first lady simply do not serve themselves, they explained.
The two sides negotiated a compromise: the gefilte fish would be preplated,
the brisket passed family-style. 

Then came what is now remembered as the Macaroon Security Standoff. At 6:30,
with the Seder about to start, Neil Cohen, the husband of Michelle Obama
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/michelle_obama
/index.html?inline=nyt-per> ’s friend and adviser Susan Sher, was stuck at
the gate bearing flourless cookies he had brought from Chicago. They were
kosher for Passover, but not kosher with the Secret Service, which does not
allow food into the building. 

Offering to help, the president walked to the North Portico and peered out
the door, startling tourists. He volunteered to go all the way to the gates,
but advisers stopped him, fearing that would cause a ruckus. Everyone seemed
momentarily befuddled. Could the commander in chief not summon a plate of
cookies to his table? Finally, Mr. Love ran outside to clear them. 

Mr. Obama began the Seder by invoking the universality of the holiday’s
themes of struggle and liberation. Malia
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/malia_obama/in
dex.html?inline=nyt-per>  and Sasha
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/sasha_obama/in
dex.html?inline=nyt-per>  quickly found the hidden matzo and tucked it away
again, so cleverly that Mr. Ziskend, the former advance man, needed 45
minutes to locate it. At the Seder’s close, the group opened a door and sang
to the prophet Elijah. 

In preparation for this year’s gathering, Mr. Lesser and others have again
been collecting recipes from the guests, including matzo ball instructions
from Patricia Winter, the mother of Melissa Winter, Mrs. Obama’s deputy
chief of staff. 

“We like soft (not hard) matzo balls,” Mrs. Winter warned in a note to the
White House chefs, instructing them to buy mix but doctor it. Use three
eggs, not two, she told them; substitute schmaltz for vegetable oil, and
refrigerate them for a day before serving (but not in the soup). 

The Seder originated with Jewish staff members on the campaign trail who
could not go home, but now some celebrate at the White House by choice.
Participants say their ties are practically familial now anyway. “Some of
the most challenging experiences of our life we’ve shared together,” Ms.
Jarrett said. 

No one yet knows exactly what themes will emerge this year. Maybe “taking
care of people who can’t take care of themselves and health care reform
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics
/health_insurance_and_managed_care/health_care_reform/index.html?inline=nyt-
classifier> ,” suggested Ms. Sher, now Mrs. Obama’s chief of staff. 

The evening might also reflect a group that has settled into the White House
and a staff more familiar with the new custom. Last week, Ms. Sher was
leaving the East Wing when a guard stopped her. 

“Hey, are you bringing macaroons again this year?” he asked. 

Correction: March 27, 2010

An earlier version of this article misspelled the last name of Herbie
Ziskend.

 

 

Bill Howe

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