Former Mayor Ed Koch, who died at age 88 yesterday of congestive heart failure, will be buried at Trinity Church in Washington Heights on Monday, after an 11 a.m. funeral held at Manhattan's Temple Emmanu-El. Koch purchased a plot at the church in 2008, telling reporters he didn't want to be buried outside the city since "the idea of leaving Manhattan permanently irritates me."
Mayor Bloomberg, Koch's former chief-of-staff Diane Coffey and friends James Gill and John LoCicero are slated to speak at the funeral, which Koch had reportedly planned well in advance; a representative for President Obama and Israeli Consul General Ido Aharoni might also make appearances.
Koch also chose the inscription on his headstone: it will bear slain journalist Daniel Pearl's last words, “My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, I am Jewish," the Jewish prayer, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One," and Koch's own self-penned epitaph, "He was fiercely proud of his Jewish faith. 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." His family will be sitting shiva at Gracie Mansion next week.
