Lesser, a former Obama staffer, has helped organize the White House seder ever since Obama took office. The tradition started in a dark hotel basement during Obama's 2008 campaign.
BOSTON - The Passover seders which Eric Lesser has attended and helped organize for the past five years bring back memories of his family’s seders in Longmeadow and the seders he went to at Sinai Temple in Springfield.
The guests eat gefilte fish and brisket, matzah and the traditional apple and nut haroset. They retell the story of the Jewish exodus from Egypt and discuss its lessons.
But, the differences are striking.
The gefilte fish one year was served on the Truman presidential china in the White House's Old Family Dining Room.
One of the seder’s most active participants is Barack Obama, the president of the United States. (Obama, according to Lesser, knows the traditional song dayenu and understands the symbolism of opening the door to the prophet Elijah.)
“He’s always very engaged in it,” Lesser said. “He likes to ask questions. He likes to get the interpretation of the story, and he’s always very keen to know what our personal history is. He would ask ‘How do you do it in your house’?”
The tradition of the Obama White House seder dates back to a windowless hotel basement during the heat of the 2008 Pennsylvania primary campaign. But, in many ways, for Lesser, the roots of the seder date back further, to Western Massachusetts, to the Springfield temple and Hebrew school that nurtured his Jewish identity and to the Longmeadow Democratic Town Committee and school system that formed him as a political activist.
“You’re obviously not in a normal place. You’re in the White House with beautiful china, beautiful serving dishes and everything else, but it felt like any other seder,” Lesser recalled. “You’re eating brisket and matzah, so you just kind of feel like you’re at home again. It just evokes all the memories of Sinai Temple and seders in Hebrew school and doing youth groups …that’s really the feel of it.”
Lesser, 28, grew up in Longmeadow and graduated from Longmeadow High School in 2003. He attended Sinai Temple, went to Springfield Jewish Community Center day camps and was president of the Springfield Federation of Temple Youth, a teen group affiliated with the Reform movement.
Lesser says Judaism taught him about the ideals of charity and tikkun olam, literally “repairing the world,” and helped shape his interest in social justice and Democratic politics.
In high school, Lesser volunteered for the Longmeadow Democratic Town Committee. In 2002, he successfully organized students to campaign for a Proposition 2 ½ override, letting the town raise more money for the school system.
“He was just very energetic, involved, committed even as high school student,” recalls Longmeadow Democratic Town Committee chair Candy Glazer. “He’s very bright, very intelligent. When he’s committed with something – and we were both committed to Obama. He gives it his all.”
As an undergraduate, Lesser headed the Harvard College Democrats and volunteered for Gov. Deval L. Patrick’s 2006 campaign. He attended the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston and found himself “mesmerized” by then-state senator Obama’s speech.
When Obama ran for president, Lesser volunteered for him in New Hampshire. When Lesser graduated from college in 2007, the campaign hired him onto the New Hampshire advance team and then the national team in a job Lesser describes as “bag man,” making sure no luggage got lost as Obama and his entourage criss-crossed the country. Lesser logged nearly 200,000 miles through 47 states and six countries.
On the eve of Passover in 2008, Lesser and Jewish videographer Arun Chaudhary found themselves on a whistle-stop train tour from Philadelphia to Harrisburg, Pa. It was a grueling trek, just days before the Pennsylvania primary, a pivotal contest in the tight race between Obama and Democrat Hillary R. Clinton.
“I was a little bit bummed” about being away from family for seder, Lesser said. Lesser, Chaudhary, advance staffer Herbie Ziskend and a couple of others decided to do their own seder.
Lesser’s cousin got them a Passover package from the University of Pennsylvania Hillel that included matzah, Manischewitz wine, macaroons, gefilte fish and some haggadahs, the traditional seder text. They begged a shank bone – a symbol placed on the seder plate – from the kitchen staff at the Harrisburg Sheraton. Arriving late at night, they found only a dark, windowless, basement room in which to conduct their seder.
“We were about to start…and Senator Obama popped in and said ‘Hey is this the seder’?” Lesser recalled. “He sat down, and we did a seder.”
Lesser said Obama was familiar with the Exodus story and had attended seders with Jewish friends in Chicago. Obama peppered the Jewish staffers with questions.
“It was a really special moment,” Lesser said. “There were no reporters, no crowds…And, it was really what a seder was supposed to be, which is a chance to recline and a chance to rest and spend time with friends and reflect on the meaning of the holiday, both the social justice elements, and the historic, the biblical elements and of course the modern application of those lessons.”
At the end of the seder, they raised their wine glasses and concluded with the traditional, “Next year in Jerusalem.” The staffers put their glasses down, and Obama raised his own glass. “Next year in the White House,” Obama said.
A year later, Obama was president and Lesser was working as a special assistant to White House advisor David Axelrod. (Lesser would later become director of strategic planning for the Council of Economic Advisers.) “The president was walking by one day and said ‘Hey Lesser, are we going to do the seder again? I promised next year in the White House,’” Lesser recalled.
Som the tradition was born.
Each year since then, the original group from Harrisburg has reunited for a Passover seder. They pool family recipes, with Lesser’s mother submitting her carrot soufflé. The president brings his family and a few top advisers, including Valerie Jarrett and Eric Whitaker. Everyone takes turns reading from the traditional text, with Lesser, Chaudhary and Ziskend organizing. As is tradition, participants hide a piece of matzah referred to as the afikoman and the children – Obama’s daughters, Malia and Sasha - search for it.
The participants are mostly Jewish or black, and Lesser said the president is eager to teach his daughters about the parallels between the story of the Jewish exodus from slavery in Egypt and the civil rights movement. The group reads President Abraham Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation freeing the black slaves alongside the haggadah. “The biblical Jewish story of the exodus has some very concrete applications to the African-American experience, and that certainly isn’t lost on the president,” Lesser said.
There are also light moments.
One year, Michelle Obama’s chief of staff, Susan Sher, tried to bring some macaroons, traditional Passover cookies. The Secret Service stopped her at the gate since visitors are not allowed to bring food into the White House. An aide ran out to clear the macaroons. “They were probably the most scrutinized macaroons in history,” Lesser joked.
The seder this year will be held on Monday, the first night of Passover, days after Obama returns from his first trip to Israel as president. Obama referenced the seder during a speech he gave to Israeli students at the Jerusalem International Convention Center. “After enjoying Seders with family and friends in Chicago and on the campaign trail, I’m proud to have brought this tradition into the White House,” Obama said. “I did so because I wanted my daughters to experience the Haggadah, and the story at the center of Passover that makes this time of year so powerful." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife Sara gave Michelle Obama a silver seder plate as a gift to use at the White House seder.
Though some in the Jewish community have criticized Obama for what they perceive as his weak support for Israel and his rocky relationship with Netanyahu, Lesser brushes off the criticism, saying Obama “theologically really understands Judaism.”
Lesser, Chaudhary and Ziskend have all since left the White House. Lesser is a student at Harvard Law School. Chaudhary works for a Washington media firm, and Ziskend works in venture capital.
Lesser said the seder has become a reunion for the original campaign staffers, as their lives progress. The first years, Lesser brought his parents. Then, he brought his fiancé and then wife Alison Silber. At this year’s seder, Silber is pregnant with their first child.
Back in Western Massachusetts, Rabbi Mark Shapiro, of Sinai Temple, who has known Lesser for 25 years and officiated at his wedding, said he is proud of Lesser for all his work. “Not just because of helping with the seder in Washington but because of his dedication and his energy to politics and to making a difference in the world,” Shapiro said.
“Given Eric’s outgoing self and his comfort with who he is,” Shapiro said, “it’s not that surprising that if someone was going to bring a seder to the White House, it would be Eric.”
