Michael Kaminsky, a third-year student at DePaul University, a private Catholic school in Chicago, spoke to The Journal on March 1 about when he and another Jewish student were assaulted in November while tabling for Israel.
Since Kaminsky’s interview with The Journal, he and the other assaulted student, Max Long, filed a lawsuit against the university on April 2, alleging that the university failed to adequately protect the students on campus; they are being represented by The Lawfare Project and its co-counsel Grant & Eisenhofer P.A. Police are investigating the assault as a hate crime.
Kaminsky, a StandWithUs Emerson Fellow, was attending the 2025 StandWithUs International Conference at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport and spoke to The Journal there.
“On Nov. 6, 2024, myself and another student, who’s also an IDF [Israel Defense Force] reservist, were tabling for Israel,” he said. “We do this every single week on Wednesdays right around 1-3 pm on our campus trying to engage people in conversation about Israel, about misconceptions that people might have about the Jewish people or about Israel. And two people wearing ski masks physically attacked us. One person came from the front and was talking to us simply to distract us, while another person came from behind and started the assault. They battered us, and then eventually got up [and] ran away. We were left with pretty harsh injuries.”
Kaminsky, a tall, thin but solidly built 22-year old whose left arm was in a black sling at the time of the interview, said he suffered a wrist injury from the assault. He was recovering from an operation the previous week that required stitches. Long suffered a “pretty bad concussion and some other head injuries,” according to Kaminsky. “To this day, no one’s been arrested.”
Kaminsky claimed that there was a public safety officer — a person of color — who watched the attack unfold from “a few feet away” and didn’t do anything until the assailants left. “I ask myself, if I was a person of color, would this guy resemble more with me because he could see himself in my shoes?” Kaminsky said. “He knew that I was Jewish because we were there every single week, he knew that we were Zionist, and is it because of that he decided not to act? That’s a question that remains unanswered.”
He called the campus climate “pretty hostile” since he and Long were assaulted. “We’ve had our faces plastered on wanted posters. We’ve had students say anonymously that they wish that they could hit us with a car. We’ve had outside organizations come and try and get petitions to expel us off of campus. All while the university has yet to hold anybody responsible for any attacks, any harassment, any incitement, and it just seems like a complete failure of the administration.”
“We’ve had our faces plastered on wanted posters. We’ve had students say anonymously that they wish that they could hit us with a car. We’ve had outside organizations come and try and get petitions to expel us off of campus. All while the university has yet to hold anybody responsible for any attacks.”
Long no longer comes to campus in person and takes his classes online, according to Kaminsky. Kaminsky does come to campus, but he’s had multiple conversations with his professors about what happened and if he might be followed on his way to class. “I’m lying low,” he said. “I’m having to wear a hat, I’m having to wear darker clothes simply to blend in with my environment. So it’s been very scary, but I have to keep going because I don’t have the option to take classes online.”
Kaminsky claimed that when he’s tried to escalate the case, the university has responded by saying that it has hired a Jewish chaplain and has tried to increase security measures. “The reason why we were attacked is because there was no security present at that day,” he said. “The university did not have additional security present the day that we were attacked, and they said that they were trying to put security in place afterwards, but this additional security is not being present on campus for other students so it’s still a very dangerous and hostile environment.”
Back in February, at the last minute, the university canceled a meeting to discuss Kaminsky and Long’s safety concerns with the Chicago Jewish Alliance; Josh Weiner, co-founder of the group, told ABC7 Chicago that the reason for the cancellation was that the Chicago Jewish Alliance issued a social media post about the scheduled meeting the day before, and the university interpreted it as “not coming to the table in a collaborative way.”
“The date that I woke up out of my surgery, I noticed that the meeting was actually canceled,” Kaminsky said, “and the university cited that they thought it wasn’t in good faith that they were coming to them with this meeting. This meeting was scheduled over a month in advance; the university was well aware and had emails with this outside organization saying, ‘yes we understand who you are, we understand that you have close relationships with [Kaminsky] and the other student, and we want to meet with you guys because we know that you guys are close with them. And this outside organization has done nothing but fight for Jewish students’ equal rights on this campus; they’re probably the leading grassroots organization outside of StandWithUs, outside of Students Supporting Israel, on our campus that’s fighting for us. And the university canceling this meeting goes against everything they’re trying to say, which includes making the environment safer for all Jews.”
Kaminsky concluded the interview by stating: “Despite all of this happening, I want everybody to know that there’s still always going to be a Jewish community on every single college campus, even in the worst of the worst climates, that will fight tooth and nail for every single student, whether it’s Columbia University, UCLA or DePaul University, and it will be students that will provide a community welcoming to every single student no matter where they might be or what they’re going through, and we will always continue to amplify our voice and even when we continue to hit walls, we will always find a way to get through.”
The university said in a statement to The Journal, “The safety and security of our students is of paramount importance. We unequivocally condemned this violent attack when it occurred. Such an act clearly defies DePaul’s values to uphold and care for the dignity of every individual. We continue to work with the Chicago Police Department to investigate this incident to hold the attackers accountable. Our Student Affairs and Public Safety offices have been available to provide support for the students who were attacked, as well as others in our community who were affected by this attack. In recent years, DePaul has invested in programs, infrastructure and security to increase safety on campus.
“DePaul strongly condemns antisemitism and is actively engaging with local and national leaders to better understand how to address this scourge of hate, which is affecting many communities across the U.S. We are committed to keeping DePaul a safe and welcoming space for every member of our diverse university community.”
This article has been updated to note the April 2 lawsuit filed against DePaul University.
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