Over 75 years ago, Eli and Bessie Cohen began a mission committed to strengthening the Jewish people through education and building Jewish community. That legacy continues to thrive in three dynamic Jewish summer camps in New England and a transformational leadership and Israel experience program operated by The Eli and Bessie Cohen Foundation: Camp Pembroke, Camp Tel Noar, Camp Tevya, and the Dor L’Dor Leadership Program. The Cohen Camps, shaped by Eli and Bessie's values and with common goals, have distinct personalities and nationwide recognition. Today the strength of the Eli and Bessie Cohen Foundation and its camps is a shared mission and collective resources that benefit over 1,000 Jewish youth each summer.

Eli and Bessie believed in young people and in their Jewish heritage, and felt that Jewish education in all its forms was an important means of strengthening the Jewish community. To that end, they founded Camp Pembroke, an all-girl's overnight camp in 1935; Camp Tevya, a "fresh air" camp for poor inner-city Jewish youth, in 1940; Camp Tel Noar, a camp for college students and young adults to spend a meaningful vacation imbued with Zionist spirit, in 1945; and the Dor L’Dor Leadership Program, a summer that combines a life changing Israel experience with hands on leadership training, took its current form in 1996. In addition to establishing summer camps, they were active in founding synagogues and day schools as part of this philosophy. Eli and Bessie were passionate about the mission of Jewish education and Jewish continuity and focused on camping as the primary vehicle to achieve these goals.

These camp communities transcend generations through a burgeoning alumni network and alumni programs operated by the Foundation that have both nationwide and worldwide reach. Today, in the same outdoor settings in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, Eli and Bessie's vision is carried on through three strong summer communities where, each season, new families are welcomed, and second- and third-generation families return home.