White House Passover Seder

The White House Passover Seder is an annual private dinner held at the White House. It was initiated in 2009 by President Barack Obama for his family, staff members, friends and their families, on the Jewish holiday of Passover. The gathering recites the Passover Haggadah, discusses the themes of the Seder and their relation to current events, and partakes of a holiday-themed meal. Under Obama, who hosted and attended the Seder from 2009 to 2016, it was the first Passover Seder to be conducted by a sitting U.S. president in the White House.

On April 10, 2017, the first night of Passover, President Donald Trump continued Obama's tradition of hosting a White House Passover Seder, but unlike Obama, neither Trump nor his family members attended the ritual, which was conducted by staffers in the Executive Office Building rather than the White House.

The White House Passover Seder had its origins in an informal Passover Seder conducted on April 19, 2008, by three junior staff members of then-presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign. At the time, Obama and his campaign team were in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in advance of the Pennsylvania primary, and the Jewish staffers realized they would not be able to go home to be with their families on Seder night. The three staffers – Eric Lesser, Herbie Ziskend, and Arun Chaudhary – obtained a "Passover kit" with wine, matzo, macaroons, and Haggadahs from the Hillel House at the University of Pennsylvania and were conducting a late-night Seder in a meeting room of the Sheraton Hotel in Harrisburg when Obama walked in. "Hey, is this the Seder?" Obama asked. He and a group of aides, all non-Jews, joined in to recite the Haggadah. Obama was familiar with the ritual, having attended Passover Seders for the previous nine years. At the end of the Seder, when the assembled said the traditional wish, "Next year in Jerusalem", Obama added, "Next year in the White House".

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