While developing some of the US’s largest energy facilities, we discovered an unexpected and effective way to confront antisemitism: by living Jewish values openly and partnering with American communities that already share them. Through collaboration with hundreds of farming families across the country, we’ve shown that Jewish values and American values are not merely compatible, they are fundamentally the same, even if some have yet to recognize it.
Hard-working, good-hearted rural Americans have joined forces with Doral to build some of the largest solar power plants in the United States. Our Mammoth Solar project in Indiana — planned for completion later this year — alone will power nearly 300,000 American households annually. These projects represent a compelling business proposition for farmers and tangible benefits for the surrounding region: long-term jobs, hundreds of millions of dollars invested locally, and low-cost electricity powering homes and businesses. “Farming electrons” has become a serious industry, and we’ve taken a different, and more human approach to building it.
I (a Jewish American) founded the company together with Doral Energy (TASE:”DORL”) based on shared values. Migdal Insurance joined as our first investor. We entered one of the most competitive electricity markets in the world. In that environment, an unexpected advantage emerged: Israeli participation helped build trust in rural America, where the true barrier to entry is not capital, but relationships. More trust leads to more “yeses,” which leads to more land, larger projects, and economies of scale that benefit everyone involved. At the same time, many of the people we met had never personally known a Jewish person.
Early conversations sometimes included polite skepticism and, occasionally, antisemitic undertones. Over time, those meetings turned into genuine friendships. Today, we work closely with partners we deeply trust, some of whom were unintentionally — and in a few cases intentionally — offensive when we first met. The overwhelming majority, however, were welcoming, open, and eager to engage.
We earned trust the old-fashioned way: by delivering results and building real relationships. Israeli ingenuity applied to agrivoltaics helped prove the skeptics wrong. Nothing builds confidence like outcomes—hundreds of millions of dollars in stakeholder revenue, productive food farming beneath and around solar panels, and even a flock of 3,000 sheep grazing among the arrays.
Israeli technology, developed by Doral, designed to grow food alongside solar infrastructure, has helped reintroduce food cultivation to American family farms. Solar energy, agrivoltaics/food production now work symbiotically, restoring farms to a time when food productivity and community prosperity went hand in hand. Breakthrough technology matters, but relationship-building matters just as much.
In Israel, Doral has worked for many years in close partnership with kibbutzim and moshavim, and in recent years has become a predominant force in the solar market, accounting for more than 40% of the new electricity capacity in Israel. Successful “people-first” partnerships formed the foundation of Doral’s growth. Working as partners and getting to know people personally leads to better ideas, lower risks, and innovations. It also makes the work more meaningful, less transactional and more sincere.
My own story helps explain why this work matters so deeply to me. My parents, Midwesterners, one from Ohio and the other from Indiana. named me “Nick,” a deliberately Christian-sounding name, probably to shield me from antisemitism. They made that choice 57 years ago, shaped by experiences I never fully knew, but which likely reflected the realities they faced for decades before I was born.
I grew up in South Jersey and had a very different experience, encountering little overt antisemitism. With a name like Nick, however, I have occasionally found myself in rooms with unsuspecting antisemites. When I spoke up, they almost always backpedaled, suggesting that what I encountered was more ignorance than true animosity. And ignorance, in my experience, is far easier to change. Today, working in the very regions where my parents grew up, the energy business has become an unexpected and powerful way to heal old frictions and replace them with shared purpose.
Rural communities make up most of America’s physical landscape. When those communities know us, work with us, and see our values in action, positive perceptions take root and endure. Our leased solar fields will last 30 years, but reputation, earned through trust and shared values, lasts far longer.
Nick Cohen is the President and CEO of Doral Renewables LLC