DALLAS — Nicole Carbone never had much interaction with the Jewish National Fund before Oct. 7, 2023. But since Hamas terrorists infiltrated her home in Kibbutz Be’eri, murdering her mother and 100 other members of the tight-knit community where the 29-year-old was born and raised, Carbone has come to depend on JNF for its contribution to rebuilding kibbutz infrastructure — 132 structures on the kibbutz, including 121 private homes and 11 community buildings, were burned and destroyed on Oct. 7. 

“What JNF is doing, not just for us— but the whole region [of southern Israel] — is incredible,” Carbone, the daughter of Italian and Australian immigrants who made aliyah to the kibbutz before she was born, told eJewishPhilanthropy. 

On Thursday, Carbone, together with Ido Shwartz, head of philanthropy for Kibbutz Be’eri, traveled to Dallas, following meetings last week in Washington at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly and with U.S. government officials, to express gratitude and fundraise at the four-day JNF-USA Global Conference. Hamas still holds 10 kibbutz members captive in Gaza, and continuing to raise awareness of their plight and call for their release is another major purpose for the delegation visit, Shwartz told eJP. 

In addition to Carbone and Shwartz, some 2,500 Israel supporters from 10 countries descended on the Lone Star State this Thursday through Sunday — many donning cowboy hats and boots, as well as “Bring Them Home Now” dog tag necklaces, to bring attention to the 101 hostages still held in Gaza. Together they packed the Hilton Anatole to discuss rebuilding the Jewish state and combating unprecedented levels of antisemitism in the U.S.

More than 13 months after Hamas’ terrorist attack on southern Israel — and as the Jewish state’s wars against Gaza and Lebanon rage on — Jewish professionals and donors are facing burnout. But with a turnout roughly equal to last year’s Global Conference (more than double the size of the 2022 crowd) — enthusiasm and pride for the Jewish state was on display, with many of the panels overflowing with standing-room-only crowds. 

This year’s conference came as 4,000 Americans traveled to Israel through JNF-USA programs in the past year to volunteer. The nonprofit is in the process of developing a 34,000-square-foot community center in the Gaza envelope — which is slated to include a new “resilience” therapy and healing center and is out for contract, and work is underway on what JNF says will be a state-of-the art sports facility in Sha’ar HaNegev, literally the “Gate to the Negev,” located northeast of the Gaza Strip. 

It also marked the second conference in more than two decades that the U.S.-based arm of JNF has joined forces with JNF-Israel, Keren Kayemet Le’Israel, for a joint project to rehabilitate Gaza border communities devastated by the Oct. 7 attacks, following strained ties with one another over the years over a variety of disputes, some ideological and some over management practices.  

Rabbi David Wolpe, rabbi emeritus of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles and the Anti-Defamation League’s inaugural rabbinic fellow, delivered the keynote address on “the future of American Jewry” on Friday afternoon. 

Wolpe’s talk touched on the much-publicized situation of antisemitism at Harvard University, as some 500 U.S. college students (and 250 high schoolers) attended the conference. 

“The anger and disgust was just as important as the initial stimulus,” Wolpe, who in December stepped down from the antisemitism advisory committee at Harvard University amid an investigation into allegations of antisemitism at the school, said about the Jewish community’s reaction to rising antisemitism at Harvard. “This total absence of values was not what Harvard should represent or what America does represent.” 

Panels throughout the weekend included “Whose Land Is It Anyway: Indigenous People Vs. Colonizers, “Campuses on the Front Lines” and “Israel and the Media.” (This reporter was a panelist on the media session). 

Outside the Hilton, a dozen anti-Israel protesters were arrested on Thursday for blocking traffic and trespassing. The demonstrations, which continued throughout the weekend, stood in contrast to those at last year’s JNF conference, held less than two months after the Oct. 7 attacks, in which hundreds of protesters pounded on the windows of the Colorado Convention Center where the event was held, shouting slogans and slurs, while police, some in riot gear, surrounded the area. 

Several Evangelical Christian and Muslim pro-Israel leaders were recognized for their allyship with the Jewish state, including Arab Israeli social media influencer Yoseph Haddad and Pastor Jentenzen Franklin. Franklin, senior pastor of Georgia-based Free Chapel, received the Tree of Shalom Peace Award — JNF’s humanitarian honor — at the event’s Saturday night gala, which was emceed by actor and comedian Michael Rapaport. 

“It was really meaningful to come here and say thank you and meet new faces,” Carbone said before catching her flight back to Israel. “It feels like we’ve met a whole new family.”