BEAM OF LIGHT

The story of the White House’s first menorah, narrated by a wooden beam salvaged after the presidential residence was renovated in 1948.

Though reluctant to leave, Harry S. Truman agrees that the crumbling mansion requires a major overhaul; the first family moves out, and work begins. As the White House’s interior is razed and rebuilt, our narrator reflects on “a deeper level of destruction” it once witnessed. In 1943, hundreds of rabbis visited President Franklin Roosevelt to implore him to offer Eastern European Jews safe haven in the United States; Roosevelt refused, and millions of Jewish people subsequently perished in the Holocaust. (An author’s note in the book’s first printing erroneously references Theodore Roosevelt.) “I was supposed to be destroyed,” the beam repeats in a poignant refrain. Yet through it all, the narrator is somehow rescued. It sits in a storage warehouse for years until 2022, when woodworkers transform it into a menorah and President Biden introduces it as the “first Jewish artifact ever added to the White House’s permanent collection.” Previous administrations lit menorahs that were only temporarily on loan, but, as the beam-turned-menorah tells readers, “I can never be removed.” In this moving account, the humble menorah symbolizes the ancient miracle of salvation, as well as Jewish resilience and “strength for generations to come.” The muted, dignified illustrations echo the solemnity of the text, effectively capturing historical details and settings.

An inspired and stirring tale to share at Hanukkah—or any time of year.