Beam of Light: The Story of the First White House Menorah (Rocky Pond Books, Oct. 2024), will be journalist Elisa Boxer’s 11th children’s title. In this picture book, Boxer shares a story of Jewish resilience with young readers through the history of this unique menorah. The White House menorah was crafted in 2022 using a wooden beam salvaged from a Truman-era renovation of the presidential residence.
Why did the White House menorah strike you as a topic you’d like to write a children’s book about?
When I learned that this menorah was made from a piece of salvaged wood that had been destined for the junkyard, a darkness-to-light theme started emerging for me. From the beginning, I thought of this piece of wood as a survivor. I felt like this beam’s journey could be a metaphor for strength, resilience, and hope.
This is your third children’s book that mentions the Holocaust. Do you feel strongly that children today need to hear this history?
With each Holocaust book there has been at least one person who has reached out to me and asked some form of the question: “Don’t you think the Holocaust has been blown a little out of proportion?” And these people don’t seem like neo-Nazis—these are seemingly educated people. If they’re asking me this question, they’re passing this belief down to their children. Children need to know the truth. Especially since, and I didn’t know this when I wrote this book, we are approaching the anniversary of October 7, which was the worst massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust.
Is it difficult to keep delving into this painful topic?
I did a lot of school visits last year for Hidden Hope and one of the questions I kept getting was: “Is it depressing to write about the Holocaust?” The truth is it’s incredibly empowering to be able to bring these stories to light. Hitler’s plan was to make a museum to an extinct race and yet here I am telling stories that weren’t supposed to be told.
Did you grow up hearing stories of Jewish resilience?
I didn’t. I grew up knowing that many of my family members were killed in the Holocaust. And that my relatives who made it out were the lucky ones. Essentially, I learned about the Holocaust in the context of Jewish people being killed. That’s the way Hitler would want it. So now as a Jewish author, I am constantly finding myself driven to write about these stories of resistance and defiance.
What do you hope young readers learn from this title?
So many of us have experiences where something that feels so devastating turns out to be a beginning or a rebirth. I hope this story can inspire children to keep going through hard times. In their struggles, I hope that children of any religion remember this wooden beam that was destined for scrap and instead became an enduring symbol of survival, strength, and light.
