Camp Lavi appears to have survived a dramatic bankruptcy battle that threatened the future of one of the Modern Orthodox community’s best-known summer camps. But the group taking control is not the parent-led nonprofit that raised millions of dollars in a frantic effort to save it.

Instead, Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services, which secured Camp Lavi for $8.75 million in a bankruptcy auction, has reached an agreement with a for-profit group led by Joey Hoenig, a former Camp Lavi director and co-owner. Hoenig is expected to return as the camp’s director, with the new group pledging to preserve Lavi’s Modern Orthodox identity, traditions and coeducational model.

The agreement caps a remarkable few weeks for Camp Lavi families.

The camp was swept into bankruptcy proceedings after Michael and David Shabsels, whose sprawling business controlled 30 summer camps across the United States, filed for Chapter 11 protection. Their companies had accumulated more than $344 million in debt amid allegations that assets had been double pledged and after missed bond payments. Camp Lavi itself operates on a roughly 130-acre property in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains and can accommodate more than 600 guests.

Camp Lavi completed its summer season, but its future became uncertain when Ohel won the property at auction. Ohel initially intended to use the site for its own programming rather than continue Camp Lavi in its existing form.

Parents and alumni mobilized almost immediately. More than 4,000 people signed a petition, over 100 letters were sent to the bankruptcy judge and a committee representing Camp Lavi families filed a formal objection to the sale. The pressure eventually pushed Ohel toward finding a buyer willing to preserve the camp.

An initial deal with runner-up bidder Shlomo Drazin then collapsed after a dispute over price. Ohel had won with an $8.75 million bid. Drazin had originally bid $8.5 million but later sought to pay substantially less, leaving Camp Lavi’s future uncertain once again.

That triggered an extraordinary fundraising drive.

Families and supporters formed Camp Lavi Foundation Inc., with current director Sean Steinmetz expected to lead the nonprofit. The group ultimately announced that more than $5 million had been raised from roughly 2,000 families and supporters and that financing had been secured to match Ohel’s $8.75 million purchase price.

“We have raised all the money, and the bridge loan is secured,” Camp Lavi told families.

At that point, supporters believed the rescue was essentially complete. But within days, Ohel informed them that it had selected another buyer.

That buyer is a group headed by Hoenig, who previously owned 49% of Camp Lavi before a dispute with the Shabsels brothers forced him out in 2018. Hoenig is also a co-founder of the Five Towns Basketball League and serves as director of athletics at the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway.

Ohel said its decision came down to certainty and timing. The organization said the new group demonstrated deep roots in Camp Lavi and was prepared to move quickly enough to begin planning for the 2027 season.

“Whatever path we pursued, Camp Lavi must remain Camp Lavi,” Ohel said, stressing that preserving the camp’s culture, traditions and community had become a central condition of any deal.

For the families who raised millions to create a nonprofit Camp Lavi, the outcome is bittersweet. Their own plan will not move forward, and the camp is instead expected to remain a for-profit operation. The foundation has said donations will be returned once the court approves the new entity and the transaction closes.

The most important result, however, is the one parents feared might not happen at all: Camp Lavi is expected to open again with the same religious character and basic identity that generations of campers know.

Hoenig has made clear that continuity is his goal.

“We are not here to reinvent camp,” he told parents. “We are here to continue something that has always been incredibly special.”

The agreement still must complete the bankruptcy approval and closing process. According to the latest public reporting, the transaction had not yet formally closed, meaning one final step remains before Camp Lavi’s turbulent summer can truly be declared over.