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

Max Long and Michael Kaminsky spoke 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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One student was jumped from behind and beaten, police said, as he and another Jewish student stood outside the student center in Lincoln Park.

Long and Kaminsky just got out of the hospital.

“I’m trying to deal with everything that happened, quite a traumatic experience,” Kaminsky said.

Long has a concussion and Kaminsky suffered a broken wrist after they were attacked on their 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, carrying 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.”

A reservist in the Israeli army, he was deployed by the Israel Defense Forces after the 2023 attack. He was part of a counter-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’ve witnessed firsthand the things that I’ve heard people say here that were false and not true,” Long said. “And so it became this mission of ‘I have to make sure the truth is told.’

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It was an honest, peaceful and mostly constructive effort, he said.

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

That is until Wednesday afternoon, when two men in ski masks hit him from behind and shoved his friend, another Jewish campus leader who was sitting next to him.

“It was, it was quite a fight while I was on the ground,” Long said.

Long had his phone recording in his pocket when he saw the masked man approaching. He can be seen on video and even shook her hand.

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

The video shook and then, he said, another person started hitting him out of nowhere.

“It was lights 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 activist work would put a target on my back and make someone want to come out and target me and Max for our Jewish religion, our national origin, our ethnicity, our identity.” Kaminsky said.

Chicago police are now investigating the attack as a hate crime, releasing photos of the suspects they are looking for.

Despite the traumatic experience, the two students say they refuse to hide from fear and intimidation.

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

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

The two plan to continue to maintain an open dialogue.

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

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