Some Sephardi Jews have a custom of throwing coins and candy to children to mark the conclusion of Passover. Marc Angel recounts his memories of the practice, and explains its significance:

Each of the children was given a paper bag. We waited breathlessly for the men to come home [from synagogue]. . . . And finally the great moment arrived. [There was a knock on the door] and in came my grandfather, father, and uncles, all tossing coins and candy as we children rushed to gather the newfound treasures. Mixed into the coins and candy were blades of grass. It was a beautiful chaos of laughter, singing, and scrambling. . . .

What is the meaning of this custom? It is a re-enactment of the joy the Israelites experienced when they crossed the Red Sea and gained their freedom from the servitude in Egypt. . . . [T]he money tossed to the children reminds us of the gold and silver the Israelites took with them as they left Egypt. The blades of grass recall the reeds at the sea. The candy symbolizes the manna. Just as the Israelites rejoiced and sang at their redemption, so our celebration included ineffable joy.

The closing days of Passover focus on the theme of redemption. . . . We were redeemed in antiquity; we will be redeemed in the future. But what about now? I think the “money throw” at the end of Passover provides an answer. We don’t live in a redeemed world, but we have the power to increase faith, increase joy, increase hope. We have the ability to give our children and grandchildren a spirit of happiness and excitement in their Jewishness. We can remind ourselves of past redemption, and that we ourselves must play a role in maintaining a vibrant, creative, and happy Jewish life until the future redemption.

While it is commendable that administrators of several universities finally called upon police to crack down on violent and disruptive anti-Israel protests, the actions they have taken may be insufficient. At Columbia, demonstrators reestablished their encampment on the main quad after it had been cleared by the police, and the university seems reluctant to use force again. The school also decided to hold classes remotely until the end of the semester. Such moves, whatever their merits, do nothing to fix the factors that allowed campuses to become hotbeds of pro-Hamas activism in the first place. The editors of National Review examine how things go to this point:

Since the 10/7 massacre, Columbia’s Jewish students have been forced to endure routine calls for their execution. It shouldn’t have taken the slaughter, rape, and brutalization of Israeli Jews to expose chants like “Globalize the intifada” and “Death to the Zionist state” as calls for violence, but the university refused to intervene on behalf of its besieged students. When an Israeli student was beaten with a stick outside Columbia’s library, it occasioned little soul-searching from faculty. Indeed, it served only as the impetus to establish an “Anti-Semitism Task Force,” which subsequently expressed “serious concerns” about the university’s commitment to enforcing its codes of conduct against anti-Semitic violators.

But little was done. Indeed, as late as last month the school served as host to speakers who praised the 10/7 attacks and even “hijacking airplanes” as “important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in.”

The school’s lackadaisical approach created a permission structure to menace and harass Jewish students, and that’s what happened. . . . Now is the time finally to do something about this kind of harassment and associated acts of trespass and disorder. Yale did the right thing when police cleared out an encampment [on Monday]. But Columbia remains a daily reminder of what happens when freaks and haters are allowed to impose their will on campus.