years. At the end of the Seder, when the assembled said the traditional wish, "Next year in Jerusalem", Obama added, "Next year in the White House". The following year, with Obama elected president and his junior staffers working in the White House, Obama encouraged the group to hold the Seder again. The 2009 event was the first time that a sitting U.S. president conducted a Passover Seder in the White House. The White House switchboard was reportedly swamped with callers seeking a dinner invitation. The White House Seder was scheduled for the second night of Passover to allow Jewish staffers to spend the first Seder on the first night of Passover with their families. About 20 guests sat around a table in the Old Family Dining Room reading the Haggadah and sampling the traditional Seder foods. Malia and Sasha Obama, being the youngest in attendance, recited the Four Questions and engaged in the search for the afikoman. Obama hosted the White House Passover Seder for all eight years of his administration. Among the annual traditions for the White House Seder were Obama's imitation of Pharaoh, Chaudhary's speech on the Hillel sandwich, and the hiding of the afikoman under the watchful eye of a Secret Service member. The Seder convened in the Old Family Dining Room and lasted for two hours. During Obama's last year in office in 2016, the Seder was held on April 26, the sixth day of Passover, due to Obama's previously scheduled visit to Saudi Arabia on the first and second nights of Passover. Themes During a visit to Israel in 2013, Obama stated that he brought the Passover Seder to the White House to acquaint his daughters with the story of the Exodus, whose themes resonated with his personal beliefs. He said: To African Americans, the story of the Exodus was perhaps the central story, the most powerful image about emerging from the grip of bondage to reach for liberty and human dignity – a tale that was carried from slavery through the Civil Rights Movement into today. For me, personally, growing up in far-flung parts of the world and without firm roots, the story spoke to a yearning within every human being for a home. The White House Seder participants, many of them African Americans, were cognizant of the similarities between the story of the Israelites' Exodus from Egypt and the American civil rights movement.