Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Life

Does Madoff Have Cancer?

Bernie Madoff may be dying of cancer, the New York Post reports. Though the speculation is heavy and the sources are few, inmates told the Post that Madoff has been taking 20 pills each day, and that he is not well. The implication that Madoff took the fall alone for his $65 billion dollar Ponzi scheme because of what may or may not be life-threatening cancer was not lost on us:

Bernie Madoff had little to lose by confessing to masterminding the world’s biggest Ponzi scheme — he’s dying of cancer, sources told The Post.

Both Madoff’s wife and lawyer were unable to be reached by the Post to confirm or deny a cancer diagnosis, though the type of cancer is rumored to be pancreatic.

In an interesting twist of the spiritual, Madoff is allegedly attending weekly Native American religious rituals with fellow inmates that incorporate hot rock sweat baths and pipe-smoking. Maybe he’s looking to get as far away from his Jewishness as possible. We can probably speak for Jews everywhere when we say that the Jews don’t mind.

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.