THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Please be seated. Thank you very much. To Sara Bloomfield, for the wonderful introduction and the outstanding work she’s doing; to Fred Zeidman; Joel Geiderman; Mr. Wiesel — thank you for your wisdom and your witness; Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Senator Dick Durbin; members of Congress; our good friend the Ambassador of Israel; members of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council; and most importantly, the survivors and rescuers and their families who are here today. It is a great honor for me to be here, and I’m grateful that I have the opportunity to address you briefly.

We gather today to mourn the loss of so many lives, and celebrate those who saved them; honor those who survived, and contemplate the obligations of the living.

Here are a few recipes to make your Passover a little sweeter. The first recipe is for a tried and true simple dessert and the others are from finalists in the Simply Manischewitz Cook-off competition.

THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

April 7, 2009

L’ma’an tizkor et yom tzait’chah — Therefore you shall remember the day that you went forth. Deuteronomy Chapter 16, Verse 3

My family and I send our warmest wishes to all celebrating the sacred festival of Passover.

As people of the Jewish faith in America and around the world gather together to celebrate Passover, they remember the story of Exodus. The passage of their ancestors from the Land of Egypt after 430 years of slavery led to a long journey through a desert, the ascent to a mountaintop, and then freedom in the Land of Israel. It is among the most powerful stories of suffering and redemption in human history.

The Passover Seder, with its symbols and rituals, instructs each generation to remember their past, while appreciating the beauty of freedom and the responsibility it entails. As part of a larger global community, we all must work to ensure that our brothers and sisters of every race, religion, culture, and nationality are free from bondage and repression, and are able to live in peace.

As Jewish families gather across America to enjoy the magnificent and hard-earned gift of freedom, let us all be thankful for the gifts that have been bestowed upon us. And at the same time, let us also work to alleviate the suffering, poverty, and hunger of those who are not yet free.

Again, Michelle and I wish all who celebrate Pesach a peaceful and relaxing holiday. Chag sameach.

On April 5, 1968, Arthur Waskow was walking to his house in Washington, D.C., among rioters and armed guards. It was a neighborhood under curfew, the night after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed.

Waskow, who had been involved in the civil rights movement, spent the week ferrying food, medical supplies, and doctors from the white neighborhoods to the black neighborhoods. The next week was Passover.

“I was walking home past the army and my kishkes began to say, ‘This is Pharaoh’s Army,’” recalls Waskow, now a rabbi.

ENCINO, Calif. – I am addicted to the news. Something enormously dramatic and extraordinary seems to be happening all the time, whether it’s war, terrorism, natural disasters, corruption, environmental destruction or economic upheaval.

With this constant tumult, one may wonder if the state of the world is growing more dismal. More likely it was always like this, but without the Internet and television it was lesser known. People seem to be constantly seeking answers on how to cope, gain more control of their lives and remain spiritually whole.

NEW YORK – Back in college, an acquaintance of mine had a one-line answer to the intermarriage debate: “If you want to have a Passover seder in your house, marry a Jew,” he said. “Period.”

Though I can’t remember the context of his declaration, it’s a phrase that’s stuck with me through the years. That’s not because I’ve spent much time worrying about intermarriage; it’s because I’ve become a little bit obsessed with Passover.

Or make that my idea of Passover.

This year at your Passover seders, as you metaphorically depart Egypt, consider that you may also be leaving Kansas and traveling nonstop to the Land of Oz. Or, that matzoh in hand, you and your guests are heading into deepest space, going where no one has gone before.

This year on the seder nights of April 8 and 9, a magical world also awaits. If that sounds a bit much, how about exiting Egypt only to wind up in a show about nothing?

Leading a seder can be daunting enough, with tricky tunes to sing, a horde of tough questions to answer, and bitter herbs to swallow.

But when your seder is packed with youngsters who get fidgety before it’s even time to recite the Ma Nishtanah, the evening may feel longer than those years of bondage in Egypt.

Fortunately, some local teachers and rabbis have dozens of creative ideas that will help frazzled parents create a Pesach to inspire every kind of child, including the wise one, the simple one, the one who is too young to ask, and well, let’s not even mention the fourth one.