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For the inscription on his memorial tombstone, Koch requested that the marker bear the Star of David and the words from the Hebrew prayer Shema Yisrael, "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One" as well as the last words of journalist Daniel Pearl before he was murdered by Islamic terrorists in 2002: "My father is Jewish. My mother is Jewish. I am Jewish." Underneath which it reads: "Daniel Pearl, 2002, just before he was beheaded by Muslim terrorists"He died on the same day as the 11th anniversary of Daniel Pearl's murder. The tombstone included a final epitaph that Koch wrote himself: "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.
