The following is republished in full from the DSA Sacramento chapter’s Facebook page.

Michael Israel was a complex man. Yes, he was a complex man who lived his life so compassionately and so completely for others that he remains a mystery to many of us still on the other side.

Some of us knew Michael as the scrappy Leftist who helped organize the Motherlode Progressives, providing material and social support to working-class struggle in Amador County. Others knew him as a leader in Sacramento IWW and Occupy. Still others knew him as a union representative with SEIU Local 1021. Those of us in Sacramento DSA knew him as our former co-chair, but way more than that — as one of our closest and dearest friends, always honest, always humble, always a shining example of kindness, bravery, and integrity. A truly beautiful human being who brought positivity, trust, respect, and empathy always to the world.

In the archives of the Internet and the passive memories of most, what he will be remembered by will be as a martyr who, two days ago, passed away while volunteering with the YPG in an effort to defeat fascism in Syria.

But even to those who might have met him just once or twice — Michael rarely talked about himself for too long. Instead, he listened to others. He built others up. That was him M.O., and he did, to an extent, compartmentalize his life.

The more you got to know him, the more you began to understand how all the little things added up.

He loved to barbecue. In fact, he spent the majority of his hiatus away from Syria barbecuing. That spoke to, in part, his working-class pride and his love of gathering around warm, hearty food to celebrate and share stories.

He had little stories he would tell over and over. Like this one: the one time, with the Motherlode Progressives — while he was door knocking on a street, there were these cranky neighbors who started to get suspicious, and so started screaming at him. When Michael showed these agitated neighbors an impromptu business card he had quickly made, the neighbors settled down then got all happy-excited: “Hey guys, the kid’s legit! He’s got a card!” Ever since that incident he’s had this solid advice: always, always bring a business card.

It wasn’t about the story itself, or even the ridiculous moral, which just happens to be true. Michael would have this wide smile and pure brightness in his eyes when he would tell it; Michael would tell his stories to those who were feeling down in order to bring them back up again. That’s the sort of man Michael Israel constantly was: a carer.

Michael once walked all the way from San Francisco to Washington DC to bring awareness to and protest the Iraq war. Discussing it on Democracy Now, answering Amy Goodman’s question of what stood out the most to Michael on his months-long protest, he replied so earnestly: “Well, we’ve been through a lot of places and met a lot of really amazing people. So, I mean, there’s a number of things that stand out. I think a lot about just when we were going through Nevada and parts of Utah, where it was just nothing for — it was just desert for miles and miles. You know, I think about that and just how, you know, it was really hard, but it was also kind of funny at times, just how there were some people out of Carson City that thought they could have helped us out through the desert and bring us water or food, but it ended up that they had other things they needed to do or didn’t have time, so they would end up like dropping out on us.

“And there was also just places I remember in Colorado where we would be in the newspapers like the day before we walked into a town, and, you know, as we’re walking in, we find out just like this one little town in the middle of Colorado has like a — there’s a surprising amount of people that want to come out and support us. I mean, in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, there was a — I mean, there was a time where we couldn’t walk for five minutes without someone stopping their car and jumping out and bringing us water or offering us a place to sleep at night. And just all along the way, we’ve met a lot of amazing people and seen a lot of really great things.”

Humble, honest — he just did the right thing. Always.

He was motivated by his Christian ethics. He would do anything he understood to be right. That’s why he chose to volunteer with the YPG. That’s how he lived his life.

We will never stop missing you, Michael — though we will continue on in your shadow, striving to become what you always were.

Rest in power.