Beam of Light: The Story of the First White House Menorah

Gr 2-5–“I was supposed to be destroyed.” This is the opening line and the refrain of this provocative story of a White House beam removed during the 1952 rebuild. The beam recounts history it witnessed: 400 rabbis coming to the White House in 1943 to ask President Roosevelt to allow European Jews entry (they were turned away), a piano leg coming through the ceiling in 1948, and the partial demolition and rebuild of the White House. The beam was “Salvaged. Sent to a storage warehouse. And there I sat, through thirteen Presidents.” The beam was pulled from storage and made into a menorah, becoming in 2022 “the first Jewish artifact added to the White House collection./ I can never be removed.” Color illustrations, most spreads, show the White House falling apart, but there is more: one drawing shows lit candles on a deep blue background with an anguished person in the corner for the Jews killed in the Holocaust. A variety of different menorahs are shown. A brief author’s note on menorahs at the White House and a short bibliography is provided. Repetitive phrases and strong statements are in bold print. The story of the beam, by itself, is compelling even without the additional information woven in about World War II atrocities and the Holocaust, but it all blends with the theme of survival and renewal.