Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Michael Cohen Is Going To Prison — But At Least It’s Very Jewy

Michael Cohen was accepted into his top choice prison: FCI Otisville, 70 miles northwest of New York City and beloved of the best white-collar Jewish criminals for its range of ethnic amenities.

Perks include a full-time Jewish chaplain, kosher kitchen — featuring matzo ball soup, gefilte fish, beef cholent and rugelach — and weekly Shabbat services, according to New York Magazine. When it comes time for Passover, Cohen will be well fed during the full, inmate-led Seder held in the prison’s cafeteria on white tablecloths, the food in airplane-style prepackaged trays. And instead of the traditional four cups of wine, there will be four cups of grape juice.

“It’ll be boring. He’ll lose his freedom, but he won’t be in fear of his safety there,” said Alan Ellis, a lawyer and author of “Federal Prison Guidebook,” to NBC News.

Former Jewish inmates includes Sam Waksal of biopharmaceutical company ImClone Systems, disgraced financier Martin Frankel and Kenneth Ira Starr, who carried out a $35 million Ponzi scheme. Sholam Weiss, a businessman convicted of racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering, is still there. The infamous Bernard Madoff applied but was not accepted — he’s in North Carolina at FCI Butner.

As for freedom, Cohen may find he has more: He said in court Wednesday that he had been living in a “personal and mental incarceration” under Trump.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.