I subscribe to the StopAntisemitism website and get weekly updates on what they find. They often have clickable links that allow you to send an email to organizational leadership about what their employees are doing related to Jew hatred and asking for help in reaching out. I almost always take this action

On Sunday, the following message was sent and I reached out the the leadership of Loras College about this coach.

Edward “Eddie” Liger Smith is an assistant wrestling coach at Loras College and co-founder of the Midwestern Marx Institute. He has repeatedly promoted tropes and conspiracy theories that echoe longstanding anti-Jewish narratives. With an online following of roughly 450,000 across X and TikTok, he possesses a massive platform for disseminating these views to a wide audience. As a wrestling coach, he holds significant influence over impressionable young men while simultaneously leveraging a large social media presence to spread his inflammatory rhetoric. This combination creates a dangerous platform with the potential to shape and radicalize vulnerable individuals both on campus and online.

Smith has publicly promoted violence and has glorified Hamas, a U.S. designated terror organization, to his vast audiences. Examples of Smith’s rhetoric include:

• Calling Hamas terrorists “Palestinian resistance fighters” the day following the massacre on October 7th and saying, “What a courageous and powerful group of people.”
• Publicly supporting Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
• Referring to Hamas as “The people defending their children from the Zionist death machine that you support.”

Eddie Smith frequently uses conspiracy-based framing and broad, collective accusations that target Jewish people and promote antisemitic narratives. 

Examples include:

• Framing “Israeli Zionists” as part of a “ruling elite” and characterizing them as “compatible with murderous anti-human destruction.”
• Stating “the Iranian Revolution is under attack from Zionist pedophiles.”
• Sharing “I hope this makes you reflect upon the way that Israel and the Zionist lobby is increasing rates of anti-semitism in the West.”
• Claiming it is “an objective, historical fact” that “Zionism is a terrorist ideology.”
• Stating “Anywhere in the world where you see actual Muslim extremist groups, you can almost guarantee that the U.S. and Israel have actually supported or funded them.”
• Claiming the Israeli government is “literally doing another Holocaust” and saying “but Americans like me need to give Israel 3 billion dollars a year in order to protect the Jews.”

Taken together, these statements go well beyond criticism of Israel and instead promote recurring antisemitic narratives rooted in conspiracy theories and collective blame. Repeatedly portraying Jews or “Zionists” as a powerful force behind society’s problems normalizes prejudice and hostility toward Jewish communities.

Eddie Smith’s role as a wrestling coach at Loras College, combined with his large online following, gives him significant influence over both student-athletes and a broader public audience. While entrusted with mentoring young people, he has repeatedly promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories, used dehumanizing rhetoric, and publicly praised Hamas – conduct that raises serious concerns about his ability to serve in a position of authority and trust.

Given the nature and pattern of this behavior, Loras College must conduct an immediate review and determine whether his continued employment is consistent with the institution’s values and its responsibility to provide a safe and inclusive environment for students.

I was surprised to get an almost immediate response from Loras College’s President, Mike Doyle addressing the issue. He was emphatic that Eddie Smith was not an employee or an active coach. He also promised to look into the issue and address it asap. He took the concern very seriously, was not defensive, and wanted to ensure that this hateful man was not connecting any way to Loras College. I was impressed by the response but honestly didn’t expect much of a follow through because most Presidents hope it will fade away.

I hadn’t heard from President Doyle in a few days so I reached out this morning to ask for an update. Once again, I got an almost immediate response, which again surprised me. President Doyle actually did follow up. He did the work to learn about Eddie Smith, who he is, how he is/was connected and began following up with those who reached out to him as well as with his leadership team at Loras College. He told me he spoke directly with Liora Rez, the Executive Director of StopAntisemitism, to share what he learned and she then removed the reference to Loras College. Once again, I was impressed.

He told me the detailed story of what happened. Smith was listed on an old archived site from 2021 and Eddie Smith has not been connected with Loras College or the wrestling team since then, a year after he graduated from Loras. President Doyle shared that he instructed his staff to remove the archived information and to scrub any mention of Eddie Smith from their online presence. I went an checked myself and sure enough, that archived site was entirely removed, not just references to Smith.

President Boyle went a step futher in his effort to address this issue, sharing that he has instructed his Senior Vice President to make sure there are no indirect connections via groups Mr. Smith is part of in Dubuque.  These would be groups that are not affiliated with Loras in any way but could have some tie to Loras in people’s minds. That is how serious Presidnet Boyle takes antisemitism, Jew hatred, and hate in general.

Loras received over 250 emails about the issue and President Doyle and the administration took every one of them seriously. The IT Department went into their quarantine and spam filters to find every email address and compile a list so President Doyle could respond to them as a group (it’s not realistic for a College President to engage with that many people individually). He continues to share more information directly with me, just a regular person who has no connection to Loras College, because it is the right thing to do. To be honest, I’m shocked that he would reply individually for exactly the reason I wrote above – he doesn’t have the time to respond to each and every person who isn’t connected to Loras College. His last note touched my heart. He wrote, “It is simply not acceptable that you/we have to deal with this type of hate or any other type of hate.  Be well and prayers for a peaceful and loving world will continue on our end at Loras and with my family and me.”

Lots of people wrote to him, critical of Loras College. I hope that this story will be shared and at least twice as many will reach out to thank him. In our crazy world where we deal with so much Jew hatred, physical violence against Jews, and justification of it by so many of our ‘leaders’, President Boyle and Loras College stand out as an example of humanity, of courage, and should be recognized for it.

If you want to send him a thank you email, just click here. If that doesn’t work for you, his email is mike.doyle@loras.edu and please put THANK YOU as the subject line since that will stand out in the quarantine or spam filter. Thank you’s go a long way, especially when dealing with something like this. He deserves to be thanked.

Sometimes it is hard to find hope. President Mike Doyle reminds me of how many good and righteous people and leaders there are who are not afraid to stand up against hate. Who are not afraid to do the right thing immediately because that’s what they stand for. Let’s make sure he and Loras college know both how much we appreciate him but also the College for doing what is right when it is not always easy.

Thank you President Mike Boyle!!