Updated Nov. 6, 2025
As a Catholic, Vincentian university, DePaul is fully committed to fostering a community where everyone feels welcome and has the opportunity to thrive. Our mission is rooted in the belief that every human being possesses inherent dignity — a belief that compels us to stand firmly against hate and antisemitism in all its forms. At DePaul, we are resolved to continue enhancing our efforts to confront antisemitism wherever it appears — on our campus, in our community, and around the world.
Over the past year, DePaul has implemented new policies and initiatives to combat antisemitism, and to ensure that the university is a safe and welcoming community for our Jewish students. The following progress report highlights many of the efforts that have been implemented or launched in 2025.
I. Strategic Counsel
Special advisor on Jewish engagement
President Robert Manuel appointed Scott Levin, Esq. as
special advisor on Jewish engagement in May 2025. As the former regional director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Mountain States Region, Levin brings expertise and a history of leadership to this important work.
In his role, Levin is actively meeting with faculty, staff, and students — as well as Jewish leaders in Chicago — to assess DePaul’s policies, practices and campus culture related to antisemitism. His scope of work includes creating a comprehensive action plan with recommendations for policy improvements and community engagement.
Jewish Life Advisory Council
Per the recommendation of the special advisor on Jewish engagement, President Manuel welcomes the opportunity to establish a Jewish Life Advisory Council. This high-level advisory group will provide support to the university president on emerging challenges, identifying opportunities for collaborative engagement, and ultimately helping to make DePaul a national model for supporting Jewish life on a diverse campus.
Meetings with the individuals who will serve on the council are underway. The council will meet quarterly, or as necessary, to review and assess issues about antisemitism and how to create a greater quality of life for our Jewish students at DePaul. The first council meeting will take place by the end of the calendar year.
II. Policies, Safety Enhancements, and Reporting
Identity Verification Policy
DePaul has taken steps to address campus safety through the implementation of an Identity Verification Policy. This policy, which was
officially approved in May 2025, strengthens Public Safety efforts to verify identity for any individual on university property when there is a clear reason to do so. Individuals must present a DePaul ID or other valid photo identification upon request. If identity is obscured, officers are authorized to request the removal of masks, face coverings, or disguises to confirm identity. Officers receive regular policy training to ensure it is administered fairly and consistently and will accommodate individual medical or religious needs. Refusal to comply can result in trespass, removal from campus, or disciplinary action.
Safety Enhancements
Over the past few years, DePaul has made numerous safety enhancements and investments, including:
- Increased external security spending to hire more officers for DePaul Public Safety and extended private security contracts with a company that employs off-duty law enforcement.
- Expanded safety escort services by contracting with a private security company to increase our fleet of “Vinnie Vans,” which provide free transportation from campus to a residential address within defined boundaries. Public Safety escorts are available to all students on campus from 6 p.m. – 6 a.m. Students with additional safety concerns, including Jewish students, also have access to our 24/7 safety escort service provided by Public Safety.
- Over $500,000 in lighting upgrades on the Lincoln Park Campus, specifically in the Quad and in our parking garages to deter crime.
- Installation of new security cameras, upgrading over 200 existing cameras, and integration of security cameras with emergency call towers.
Additionally, earlier this year, President Manuel commissioned an external review of our safety protocols and procedures, conducted by an independent, third-party security consulting firm, The Lake Forest Group. Completed in June 2025, the review found that Public Safety at DePaul currently exceeds security standards in many areas.
Time, Place and Manner Enforcement
DePaul University remains committed to consistently enforcing its Time, Place, and Manner Guidelines, which were revised in August 2024 to clarify how members of our community may safely and productively engage in demonstrations. These guidelines are designed to balance freedom of expression with the university’s responsibility to ensure safety, protect academic operations, and uphold our values of civility and respect. The university community receives these guidelines regularly, most recently in a
university-wide email sent in September 2025.
DePaul has taken decisive action to prevent unrecognized and banned groups from disrupting campus life. For example, in March 2025, DePaul Public Safety and the Chicago Police Department stopped the outside group Behind Enemy Lines from entering university property. The group, which is not affiliated with DePaul, was prevented from organizing on campus and directed to remain on the public sidewalk.
DePaul continues to remain vigilant in enforcing its policies and taking swift, consistent action when violations occur. These measures ensure that demonstrations are conducted in ways that reflect the university’s values and safeguard the security, operations, and academic mission of the institution.
Human Dignity & Bias Response Team
Over the past several months, university leadership has been working to establish a bias education response team to serve as a critical point of support and accountability for our campus community. At the beginning of this academic year, we officially launched the new reporting mechanism, called the
Human Dignity & Bias Response Team or HDBRT.
A centralized university resource, DePaul created HDBRT to receive bias reports, coordinate responses, and connect individuals with appropriate support. Any student, faculty, or staff member may submit a bias report. Rather than serving as an investigative or disciplinary body, which is handled by other departments within the university, HDBRT provides a coordinated pathway to connect individuals to appropriate offices and resources, ensuring every concern is taken seriously.
DePaul’s vice president for diversity, inclusion and belonging serves as chair for the HDBRT, working in close collaboration with the Dean of Students Office, Office of Gender Equity, and Human Resources.
Title VI Management Structure
Title VI violations can affect faculty, staff, and students. The university is creating a connected management structure that ensures the appropriate office investigates every complaint. Human Resources, the Dean of Students Office in Student Affairs, and the Office of the Provost will collaborate to uphold the university’s obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect community members from harassment or discrimination based on religion, ethnicity, shared ancestry or national origin. This structure will serve as a critical central point of contact for Title VI training and compliance, providing further support for the members of our university community.
III. Academic Programming to Provide Additional Opportunities to Learn about Jewish People and their History and Religion
First-Year Program
This academic year, DePaul created a new course as part of Discover Chicago, a nationally recognized program for all first-year students. Taught by DePaul’s Jewish Life Chaplain Kayla Schneider-Smith, the course description states:
Jewish Artists of Chicago
Painters. Dancers. Writers. Musicians. Chicago is teeming with Jewish artists from across many artistic disciplines. Despite their small numbers worldwide (just 0.2% of the population), Jews contribute richly to the arts and culture scene. In this course we’ll spend time with some of Chicago's greatest Jewish creatives: visual artists, poets, musicians, chefs, drag queens, dancers, and more. We'll witness and learn about their work while exploring how our own ethnic, social, and religious identities influence and inform our art. During Immersion Week, expect to engage creatively in a variety of workshops with Jewish artists from around Chicago, including some of our own cherished DePaul professors and alumni. We'll visit art studios, galleries, restaurants, and theaters, including The Second City, which was originally founded by a Jewish trio from the University of Chicago. The quarter will culminate with your own creative project. This course is open to students of all faiths and cultural traditions.
Liberal Studies Program
For many years, David Chack, a faculty member in The Theatre School, has taught two courses in the Liberal Studies Program on Jewish topics. The course descriptions state:
Jewish Culture's Influence on American Theatre
Through a deep look at Jewish culture's impact on, and its intersectionality with, American Theatre and Performance the class will explore Yiddish theatre, klezmer, dramas, comedies, plays about antisemitism, and Broadway Musicals. In this way, students will engage with and examine experiences and perspectives of historically racialized groups and develop critical perspectives on racism, power and antisemitism.
The Holocaust through Theatre & Performance
Holocaust theatre and performance is the attempt to portray one of the world's most horrific events, the genocide of six million of the Jewish people and those deemed as racially "other" in the 1930s to 1945 in most of Europe, and its effects on the rest of the world during WWII. We will use multiple lenses to explore these events — historical, racial, theological, gender and sexual choice, dark humor, and the power of memory — to analyze how and why these theatre and performance works are created. We will meet virtually with partners in Warsaw, Poland, and speak with and engage with those who are actively exploring older and new ways to represent these historical events. In addition, our partners will provide us with real-time, bird's-eye reports about the current events sending shockwaves throughout Eastern Europe and give us the opportunity to understand them within the sweep of history. Ultimately, we will attempt to understand why it is that anti-Semitism, racism, homophobia, and xenophobia continue to exist to this day and draw connections. Thus, this seminar will be a way to look deeply at ourselves in civilization and in creating meaning.
Center for Jewish Law & Judaic Studies
DePaul University and the College of Law have long supported Jewish students and fostered inclusive learning environments for all. Directed by Professor Steven Resnicoff, the
Center for Jewish Law & Judaic Studies educates students, faculty and community members on the ongoing relevance of Jewish law and ethics. It also provides continuing education programming on legal issues that intersect with Jewish tradition.
Catholic-Jewish Studies Program
To provide our students with expanded academic offerings in religious studies, we have a longtime partnership with the Catholic Theological Union. All DePaul students have access to enroll in CTU classes, including the Catholic-Jewish Studies Program that promotes greater understanding of the Jewish faith and supports Catholic-Jewish dialogue. Our students have the opportunity to study such classes as, Introduction to Judaism, Women in the Scriptures, Intertestamental Judaism and Psalms.
Fulbright Scholar
Alexei Sivertsev, a religious studies professor, was
named a Fulbright Scholar for the second time. He is spending the fall quarter in Israel, continuing his research into the Jewish cultural dynamics in late antiquity. He’s exploring the fifth-century synagogue floor mosaic in the city of Sepphoris in Lower Galilee and church mosaics in the neighboring sites of Horvat Kenes and Khirbet Bata, both in the vicinity of the present-day town of Carmiel.
IV. Campus Culture
Dialogue Collaborative
To foster a culture of understanding through intentional dialogue and engagement, President Manuel established the
Dialogue Collaborative at DePaul in August 2024. A cornerstone of the collaborative is the Dialogue in Action certification program, led by DePaul’s College of Communication. Through a series of workshops, cohorts of faculty and staff are trained in the principles and facilitation of dialogue across diverse perspectives.
By the end of the 2024-25 academic year, 60 faculty and staff had been certified through this program. We aim to certify an additional 60 faculty and staff by the end of this current academic year. These faculty and staff are already leading meaningful conversations across our campus. One example is a
dialogue held on February 11, 2025, featuring members of the Parents Circle–Families Forum.
The Parents Circle – Families Forum is an organization of over 750 Israeli and Palestinian families whose loved ones have been killed in conflict and who have chosen dialogue and peace. At the event in February, two members of the forum — an Israeli and a Palestinian — shared their powerful journeys with DePaul community members at the St. Vincent de Paul Church. Student leaders also had the opportunity to participate in a training session with the American Friends of the Parents Circle Families Forum.
Students are central to the Dialogue Collaborative’s mission. In March 2025, approximately 40 students completed the Bridgebuilding Fellowship, developing skills in interfaith dialogue. On April 24, 2025, these students facilitated small group dialogues during the
Yom HaShoah Storytelling event, hosted by DePaul Jewish Life. At that event, staff members also shared family stories of Holocaust survival, creating a deeply reflective and interfaith-centered space for understanding and solidarity.
In addition, a group of Dialogue Collaborative members, university leaders and staff are part of the ACCU Constructive Dialogue Institute cohort this year. This cohort is a group of Catholic higher education institutions selected to participate in a 12-month partnership with the Constructive Dialogue Institute, led by the Association for Catholic Colleges and Universities. The purpose is to embed constructive dialogue practices across campus life to foster respectful communication, critical thinking, and civic engagement among students, faculty, and staff. These institutions receive resources, training, and a professional learning community to help them build a campus-wide culture of open inquiry and dialogue across differences.
Antisemitism Training
On the advice of the special advisor on Jewish engagement, DePaul has engaged Project Shema to lead a training workshop on December 9 for the President's Strategic Planning Council. This group of university administrators includes executive officers, deans, vice presidents, associate provosts, as well as multiple faculty, staff and student representatives from DePaul’s shared governance councils.
The training will help university leaders identify, understand, and address antisemitism. Participants will gain practical tools to recognize both overt and more subtle forms of antisemitism, as well as strategies to respond effectively in academic, professional, and community settings.
By engaging administrators, faculty, staff, and student leaders, this training will ensure that those in positions of influence can foster an informed, respectful, and supportive environment. This initiative represents a critical step in DePaul’s broader effort to strengthen awareness, enhance cultural competency, and build a campus culture where Jewish students feel welcome and valued.
University leadership regularly participates in trainings offered by ADL. President Manuel and other senior leaders attended the Jewish Student Experiences Global Survey Webinar on Oct. 21, 2025, and the Training with ADL Policy Counsel on Nov. 4, 2025. The university president and senior leaders plan to attend the second part of the training focused on Title VI offices on Nov. 18.
In addition, university leaders are participating in Interfaith America’s “From Prejudice to Pluralism.” This yearlong cohort experience and grant for senior administrators offers foundational knowledge of antisemitism and Islamophobia. The program shares data and best practices on the power of pluralism in reducing prejudice, helping participants consider what such an approach would look like in their own institutional context.
V. Jewish Life and Community Engagement
Kosher dining
Starting this December, DePaul will have a
new dining partner, Aramark. As part of our service agreement, Aramark will provide more robust kosher and halal options for our university community. The kosher menu will expand on the DePaul dining experience for our Jewish community members, and after future renovations will look to include both hot and cold meal options.
Jewish Alumni Chapter
The
Jewish Alumni Chapter is actively connecting Blue Demons across Chicagoland and beyond. In partnership with DePaul Jewish Life, the chapter hosted a Welcome Shabbat event in September. Chapter members have also established chapter guidelines and are enthusiastic about promoting opportunities to get involved through our alumni channels.
New dedicated space for Jewish Life
Planning is underway with leaders in Mission and Ministry and Student Affairs to design an enhanced space for Jewish Life. This new, robust space on the Lincoln Park Campus will provide visibility and an additional feeling of safety for our Jewish community. Directly connected to DePaul’s new strategic plan, this dedicated area will host cultural programming, religious services, and a warm and welcoming space for students to engage with one another.
In addition, the university is interested in pursuing discussions with Hillel Metro Chicago about potentially establishing a Hillel House on DePaul’s Lincoln Park Campus.
Community partnerships
DePaul continues to strengthen its connection with Chicago’s Jewish community through meaningful collaborations with organizations, including the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation, Chabad, and Hillel Metro Chicago. These partnerships provide vital cultural, education, and spiritual opportunities for students while strengthening the university’s commitment to building belonging.
These partners help enrich Jewish life on campus and ensure that students feel supported by a broad network that extends beyond DePaul’s walls.