The National Ramah Commission also oversees The Ramah Programs in Israel, which runs the Ramah Israel Summer Seminar for Ramah campers finishing 11^th grade and Israel-based semester programs for high school students in grades 10-12, along with family trips, synagogue missions, and 8^th grade trips for Solomon Schechter schools. The Ramah network has also spawned offshoots in Israel, South America, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, which have helped spark interest in Judaism among youngsters and their families. The informal approach to Jewish education spearheaded by Ramah has also been credited with creating a channel for reinforcing positive Jewish and Zionist identification among youth in an enriching, comfortable religious environment.

Rabbi Mitchell Cohen assumes the leadership of the National Ramah Commission after having served for 11 years as the Director of Camp Ramah in Canada, based in Toronto. Most recently, he served as the founding Principal of the new Solomon Schechter High School in Westchester, New York.

Rabbi Cohen grew up in New Hyde Park, New York as an active member of USY through the Shelter Rock Jewish Center. He spent his summers at Cejwin Camps in Port Jervis, New York.  After graduating from Brown University, Rabbi Cohen attended the New York University School of Law, and was admitted to the New York Bar in 1984.  He spent two years working as a corporate litigator for Parker, Chapin, Flattau and Klimpl in New York City, and then enrolled in the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary, receiving his ordination in 1990.  Rabbi Cohen has spent four years studying at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, participating in the One Year Program as a college junior, and most recently as a Fellow in the Melton Center’s Senior Educators Program. 

Rabbi Cohen began his career with Ramah by attending the Ramah Israel Seminar in 1976, and subsequently worked at Camp Ramah in California between 1979 and 1988, serving as Rosh Tefilah, Rosh Edah, and Summer Assistant Director.