Ex-NYC mayor Ed Koch picks own tombstone: 'My father is Jewish, my mother is Jew

[Zelhar]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1067797.html

Former New York City mayor Ed Koch may not be ready to die, but he has already made his arrangements for that day.

The 84-year-old Koch had his gravestone already inscribed and installed in a northern Manhattan cemetery and he has chosen the temple where his funeral will be.

Koch bought his burial plot a year ago at the nondenominational Trinity Church Cemetery and he recently propped up the memorial stone.
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"He was fiercely proud of his Jewish faith," the tombstone reads. "He fiercely defended the City of New York, and he fiercely loved its people. Above all, he loved his country, the United States of America, in whose armed forces he served in World War II."

He also had the stone inscribed with the last words of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl before he was beheaded by Islamic terrorists in Pakistan - "My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, I am Jewish."

Koch also includes a familiar Jewish prayer and words he wrote about his faith after he suffered a stroke in the 1980s.

Koch was mayor of New York from 1977 to 1989.

Why does he want a Jewish burial ?
Many self hating Jews want to be buried in Jerusalem although they can't stand living in Israel. I think this symbolizes allot of what's going on. Self hating Jews basically wish to turn Israel into a the grave yard of Judaism.

[Ithaca-37]

"Why does he want a Jewish burial?"

Frankly, I was thinking of a question 180-degrees apart:  Why is he being buried in a nondenominational cemetery?  Surely there are Jewish cemeteries in New York.  Heck, I've been Jewish cemeteries in some genuinely off-the-beaten-path small towns in the midwest.

37

[briann]

I know he's been a self-hater, BUT Is it possible he has become a little more righteous in recent years?  Old age can have that effect.

[New Yorker]

Yeah, cmon, he's 84 years old and picking out his gravestone, give the guy a break.

[Zelhar]

"Why does he want a Jewish burial?"

Frankly, I was thinking of a question 180-degrees apart:  Why is he being buried in a nondenominational cemetery?  Surely there are Jewish cemeteries in New York.  Heck, I've been Jewish cemeteries in some genuinely off-the-beaten-path small towns in the midwest.

37

It seemed strange to me too but I am not familiar with American burial customs. It is also strange that the only holiday he publicly celebrates is saint Patrick's.