In the spring of 2018, the Trump administration initiated a policy of family separation at the US-Mexico border. Thousands of migrant children would be removed from their parents and locked in cages. As a progressive high-school junior, I was disturbed by the inhumane policy and moved to protest, attending a march over the Brooklyn Bridge. The protest was saturated with all kinds of socialists. I saw Rev Com’s bright yellow signs demanding system change. My dad, knowing I had some interest in left-wing politics, bought me a copy of Socialist Worker. Later, I learned that a friend went to the same protest with Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). But unlike many of the attendees, I wasn’t there with any socialist organization. I was participating with my congregation.

Growing up, my Humanistic Jewish congregation had an egalitarian ethos. We participated in AIDS marches and learned about the Jewish response to poverty. I was asked to think through how I could help build a better world, a value that we even have a phrase for: Tikkun Olam. Two quotations expressing the Jewish commitment to social justice rang throughout my childhood. Rabbi Tarfon’s declaration that “It is not your responsibility to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it,” and Rabbi Hillel’s question, “If not now, when?” taught me that I had a duty to fight injustice.

Though I never read that issue of Socialist Worker, seeing socialists out in defense of the families tortured by Trump made me think about my political values, who represented them, and how to fight against capitalism’s brutal injustices. A month later, following Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s insurgent victory on a platform of abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), I got involved in a local socialist’s campaign for state senate and joined DSA. Socialism was a natural extension of my religious upbringing and the values it instilled in me.