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Beam of Light
- The Story of the First White House Menorah
- Narrated by: Elisa Boxer
- Length: 11 mins
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Beam of Light
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Summary
The first piece of Judaica in the White House's permanent holiday collection was introduced for Hanukkah in 2022. This lovely picture book—adapted for audio—tells the history and importance of its creation.
The official White House menorah is a symbol of strength and perseverance against seemingly insurmountable odds. It was created from a piece of reclaimed wood salvaged during a Truman-era renovation of the building. That beam of White House wood sat in storage for seventy years, through thirteen different presidents. It might have been destroyed, but instead it waited for its new purpose. And so, in 2022, it was transformed into a menorah that will shine its beams of light every year, celebrating the resilience and permanence of Jewish people in America and abroad.
Critic reviews
"With earnest prose and reportorial, pencil- and watercolor-style images, Boxer and Moore cast that beam as this picture book’s narrating protagonist, imbuing it with a perspective that explicitly connects its own arc of resilience and renewal with the history of Jewish people during WWII."—Publishers Weekly