Obama girls to get gifts of silver

Sara Netanyahu will give America’s First Lady, Michelle Obama, a silver Seder plate as a gift during President Barack Obama’s visit, with the hope and intent of it being used in the White House’s annual Seder next week, Maariv reported on Tuesday.

The presents for Michelle Obama and the Obama family’s two daughters were selected from over 1,000 suggestions written on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Facebook page over the past week.

The presidents’ two daughters — Malia (14) and Sasha (11) — will each be given a pendant with a silver musical instrument known as “David’s violin” which looks like a modern-day harp. Embedded in the silver will be an ancient piece of Roman glass.

Michelle and the two girls won’t join the American president on his much-anticipated visit to the region, since the first lady has an unwritten policy of not leaving her daughters alone and trying to have them miss as little school as possible. The gifts to all three — as well as a rubber toy for Bo, the presidential dog — will be delivered by the presidential staff.

Earlier in the week, the Prime Minister’s Office announced that Netanyahu will present the American president with a gold-coated silicon chip etched with the declarations of independence of Israel and the United States.

The etching, 20 nanometers (0.00002 mm) deep, was done on a 0.04 square millimeter portion of the chip. The chip was affixed to a Jerusalem stone dating to the Second Temple Period (1st century BCE to 1st century CE), of the kind used to seal clay vessels.

David Shamah contributed to this article.