CHICAGO (WLS) — Two Jewish DePaul students continue to recover after an alleged hate crime.

Max Long and Michael Kaminsky spoke out Saturday for the first time since they were attacked in broad daylight in the middle of campus Wednesday afternoon, according to police.

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A student was jumped from behind and beaten, police said, while he and another Jewish student were outside the Lincoln Park student center.

Long and Kaminsky have just been released from the hospital.

“Trying to deal with everything that happened, it’s a pretty traumatic experience,” Kaminsky said.

Long suffered a concussion and Kaminsky suffered a broken wrist after being attacked on their own college campus.

“I didn’t think something like this could happen,” Kaminsky said.

Long stood outside the student center, as he does every week, holding a sign, flying the Israeli flag and offering to talk to passersby about the war in Gaza.

He knows war intimately.

“I was in Israel on October 7,” Long said. “I was called with my team.”

An Israeli army reservist, he was deployed by the Israel Defense Forces after the 2023 attack. He was part of an anti-explosive unit, recovering hostages.

This summer, when Reserve Sergeant Long moved to Chicago and enrolled at DePaul University, he said sharing his truth became his new operating goal.

“I witnessed what I was hearing people say here that was untrue and that wasn’t true,” Long said. “That’s what this mission became: ‘I have to make sure the truth is told.’”

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It is an honest, peaceful and above all constructive effort, he said.

“I would say 90 percent of the conversations have been positive,” Long said. “These were students who really wanted to hear more and learn more from someone who was there.”

That was until Wednesday afternoon, when two men wearing ski masks hit him from behind and pushed his friend, another Jewish campus leader standing beside him.

“It was a hell of a beating while I was on the ground,” Long said.

Long had his phone record in his pocket when he saw the masked man approach. We can see him on video and he even shook her hand.

“He talked to me for a good minute and a half or two minutes and we engaged,” Long said.

The video shakes and that’s when, he says, another person started hitting him out of nowhere.

“The lights were out,” Long said. “I was attacked from behind from a defenseless position.”

Kaminsky was also seriously injured. His arm is still wrapped in a bandage.

“I never thought that continuing to do my work as an activist would put a target on my back and cause someone to come out and target me and Max because of our Jewish religion, our national origin, our ethnicity and our identity,” Kaminsky says.

Chicago police are now investigating the attack, calling it a hate crime. post photos of the suspects they are looking for.

Despite the traumatic experience, both students say they refuse to give in to fear and intimidation.

Long said that doesn’t stop him from wanting to have conversations about the war.

“Not at all,” Long said. “I’m sure that was the intention behind the attack. We’ve been at it every week, they probably want it to stop, and we can’t allow that.”

The duo plans to continue advocating for open dialogue.

“Yes, they may have tried to attack us physically, they may have hurt us, but our morale is not broken,” Kaminsky said. “If we don’t have conversations, nothing gets solved.”

DePaul’s president called the incident outrageous and completely unacceptable. Governor JB Pritzker also directed the Illinois State Police to assist Chicago Police in apprehending the suspects, providing any assistance necessary to bring them to justice.