Blog Interview: Next Year at the White House
Bonus Passover content!
Next Year in the White House: Barack Obama's First Presidential Seder, written by Richard Michelson and illustrated by E.B. Lewis, is a nonfiction picture book that gives us the true backstory of how Passover first came to be celebrated in the White House. It's a stunning book; it received starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist, and was named to the Association of Jewish Libraries' Spring 2025 Holiday Highlights list.
Because this is a true story, I was able to interview one of the "characters" -- Eric Lesser, seen in the photo above, walking with President Obama. Lesser worked on the Obama campaign trail in 2008, and later became a White House aide. He's also served as a Massachusetts State Senator. He agreed to answer ten questions about the events covered in Next Year in the White House. I didn't have time to squeeze in an audio interview before Passover, but you can read his answers below.
NEWS
The amazing Dara Horn was my last guest on The Book of Life, talking about he graphic novel One Little Goat: A Passover Catastrophe. If you missed it, do yourself a favor and read/listen now!
Dara Horn will be the guest speaker at the Never Alone Book Club’s Zoom discussion of One Little Goat on May 15, 2025 at 5pm PT/8pm ET. Learn more HERE.
SHOW NOTES
Websites of author Richard Michelson and illustrator E.B. Lewis
A history of Passover celebrations in the White House
Spring 2025 Holiday Highlights booklist (includes Next Year at the White House)
Sign up for PJ Library to get free, age-appropriate Jewish children's books monthly. PJ Library published "Next Year in the White House" in collaboration with Penguin Random House's Crown Books for Young Readers.
INTERVIEW
The Book of Life: You were on the presidential campaign trail with Barack Obama in 2008. What was it like to be part of his campaign?
Eric Lesser: It was exhausting – absolutely nonstop. It was my job to make sure everyone had their suitcases and make sure no one lost track of things. But I was also able to see the country, meet a lot of people, and really make some lifelong friends. It was a great honor to be a small part of it.
TBOL: Tell us about the seder you held on the campaign trail. How did it come about?
EL: I was 23 years old on the campaign, and I realized at some point that I wasn’t going to be able to make it back to Longmeadow, MA for Passover. I had these two Jewish friends who were staffing, Herbie Ziskend and Arun Chaudhary, and we realized we were all going to be in Harrisburg, PA, on the night of the first seder. So we planned to get together. I started that day in Philly – it was my job to drive ahead with the luggage – and so I called my cousin, who was a student at UPenn, and he grabbed us a bottle of Manischewitz wine, a box of matzah, a carton of macaroons, and a handful of Maxwell House Haggadot from the Hillel. So we had what we needed.
TBOL: Were you surprised when Barack Obama joined your seder? What did his participation mean to you?
EL: We had invited Senator Obama, and he said he would come, but I didn’t believe him. It had been a long day with a 5-stop train tour and 5 speeches. I figured he’d want to call Michelle and go to bed. But he’s a man of his word, and he showed up. It turns out that he had been attending seders at a friend’s home back in Chicago, and that’s actually where Michelle and the girls were that night, so he was pretty well acquainted with the tradition.
He added so much to the seder. He had all these questions, asking us about our personal traditions, and he added so much context around the African American experience. It showed that he really cared about the young people on his campaign – we were truly some of the lowest ranking staffers – and about being a leader who could listen and take part in what was meaningful to others. It was also such a sweet thing, to
get together that night, when we were so exhausted, and just enjoy the dinner and not think about campaigning.
TBOL: Whose idea was it to continue doing seders together, once President Obama won the election?
EL: It was President Obama’s! I was working for David Axelrod, and Obama came and knocked on my office door, maybe a month or two before Passover. He stuck his head in and said, “Hey Lesser, are we doing the seder?” I said “I don’t know, sir.” He said, “Well, last year we said 'next year in the White House, and, well… here we are.'” So we made it happen.
TBOL: The first White House Christmas party was in 1800 under President John Adams. The first White House Iftar dinner celebrating the Muslim month of Ramadan was held in 1805 under Thomas Jefferson, although it didn't become an annual tradition until 1996 under Bill Clinton. The first White House Hanukkah party was in 2001 under George W. Bush. This book is about the first Passover seder held in the White House by Barack Obama in 2009. Why do you think it took so long for Jewish holidays to be celebrated in the White House?
EL: Jewish immigrants and their families have always held onto the American dream. After the first seder in the White House, there were some articles in the New York Times and Washington Post about it. My aunt brought the article to my grandma, who was living in a nursing home. She read it and said “A seder in the White House? Only in America!” Jews have been in America for a long time, but we haven’t necessarily been represented in government in significant ways. It was a tremendous work of allyship for President Obama to lift up our tradition – and one that, at the time, we didn’t even realize was historical. It just seemed so obvious. But I think it is significant that the first Black president in American history was the one to hold this representative role and to enable two groups with a history of marginalization and persecution to enjoy representation and tradition at the highest levels of government.
TBOL: Can you talk about the significance of Passover and the Exodus story for Black Americans, and how that was reflected at the Obama seders?
EL: The Exodus story is one that is well known in African American liturgy – Harriet Tubman was called the Moses of her people. Black Americans have much more recent histories of enslavement, and the concept of liberation, which is at the root of Passover, represents a different meaning when we’re still seeing the impact and legacy of that in our country. Dr. Eric Whittaker, a friend of Obama’s, recommended we read the Emancipation Proclamation at the seders, so we would do that after finishing the Haggadah, to tie the two traditions and histories even closer together.
TBOL: In an article in The Forward about this book, participant Arun Chaudhary said that at the seders “These were some of the most honest, free-ranging discussions you will have ever heard about racial politics, about being Jewish in America, about being Black in America, about both those things mixing, not mixing.” If you can remember any of these discussions, would you share highlights with us?
EL: One of the things I remember most vividly about the seders is that there were certainly some politics discussed, but it was more like a family conversation. Things were free flowing. We talked about things happening in people’s lives – dating, kids. It was nice to have an opportunity to speak to many very politically savvy people about things other than politics. I really relished it.
TBOL: What do you do now? Are you still involved in politics?
EL: I served as a Massachusetts State Senator for my home district from 2017-2023, but now I like to say that I'm retired from politics. I am practicing as an attorney and very involved in my local Jewish community.
TBOL: With the US and the world in so much turmoil, what are your hopes for Passover 2025? And how will you be celebrating the holiday this year?
EL: I’ll be going to Maryland to spend seders with my wife’s family. She’s one of four, so it’s a big group around that table with her, parents, brothers and sisters, and their kids. My kids are looking forward to spending some fun time with their cousins. It’s obviously a hard time right now for people, an uncertain time. My hope is that people can read this story and hopefully, maybe laugh and smile a little bit and just enjoy the fun stories and the cute pictures of Bo, the Obamas' dog. Hopefully they’ll draw some inspiration from the idea that, on the surface, groups of people can find common ground and common cause in a shared story and a shared liturgy.
TBOL: Eric Lesser, thank you for joining me and happy Passover!
