Ex-NYC Mayor Ed Koch Pens Children’s Book Based On His Battle With The Bulge

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kochFormer New York City mayor Ed Koch has written a children’s book based on his experience as a chubby child.

The book is called “Eddie Shapes Up” and is written Koch’s sister Pat Koch Thaler, who he says also was overweight as a kid.

“It’s a reference to the fact that I was a pudgy kid who suffered a lot when other kids called me ‘fatso,'” Koch told 1010 WINS.

The story is about a an overweight boy who hates recess because he is an easy dodge ball target, but eventually decides to get healthy with the support of his friends and family.

“It talks about my childhood when I was pudgy and fat and suddenly I changed, you can do it, any child can do it,” Koch said.

The 86-year-old Koch said he wanted to write the book to help children understand the importance of a healthy diet and exercise throughout their lives.

The book, which will be published by Zagat in September, is recommended for children ages 4 to 8.

The book features illustrations by Jonathan Hoefer and an introduction written by former President Bill Clinton.

{1010 WINS/Matzav.com Newscenter}


12 COMMENTS

  1. Former Mayor Edward Moore Koch was one of the early leading pioneers of Toeiva (so-called) “rights.” From soon after he entered office, he repeatedly attempted to have the New York City Council pass legislation giving Toeiva people equal “rights.” Included in these numerous “rights” were that people would be forced to hire Toeiva people to work in their businesses and would even be forced to have Toeiva people live as tenants in their multi-dwelling buildings.

    Each time the proposed Toeiva bill was introduced in the council, it was met with very strong opposition from the Bnei Torah communities and from, Lehavdil, the religious Catholic communities. So each time, the bill was always voted down, either in its committee or by the general council.

    By 1986 though, through changes in council members and extremely heavy political manipulations, Mayor Koch finally had enough votes on the council, and the Toeiva bill thus passed.

    (See my two comments, #12 and #13, on the article at http://matzav.com/klal-yisroel-loses-three-leaders-what-should-we-do, where I related in detail the amazing fact that during this period when this pro-Toeiva law was being passed, THE TWO GREATEST GEDOLAY HADOR OF THE ERA — RAV MOSHE FEINSTEIN, ZT’L, AND RAV YAAKOV KAMINETZKY, ZT’L — WERE NIFTAR!!)

    The passing of this wicked Toeiva legislation in New York City was certainly a landmark event in the development of the whole Toeiva thingy. First of all, it certainly spurned and encouraged the passing of similar legislation throughout the country. Furthermore, its success certainly spurned and encouraged the development of the further levels of Toeiva acceptance, which has beset us in recent years:

    1.) The allowance of Toeiva people, even those who openly flaunt their Toeiva thingy, to fully join the U.S. military.

    2.) The official recognition of Toeiva (so-called) “marriage.”

    3.) The official government demands and requirements for the schools to teach all students to have the utmost fullest respect for Toeiva people and their Toeiva thing.

    And again, one of the biggest pioneers of all of this was the wicked former Mayor of New York City, Edward Moore Koch, Sheim Reshaim Yirkav. A short while after he had gotten the city council to approve his Toeiva bill, I had a telephone talk with Rav Avigdor Miller, ZT’L. In it, Rav Miller bluntly stated: “(To say) ‘Yimach Shemo V’Zichro’ — that’s TOO NICE for Mayor Koch!!!!”

    Very, very tragically, former Mayor Koch is a geferliche rasha, and is certainly not any kind of role model that our children, or anyone, should look up to. They definately should not name any bridges or any other landmarks after him. And we definately should not allow our children, or ourselves, to buy or read his books.

  2. BS”D

    First of all, “Thingy” ? What’s up with that?

    Secondly,You don’t make it clear if Rav A. Miller calls Mayor Ed Koch a “Rasha” or not.

    I’m not so sure it was said the way you claim. Ed Koch had no real Chinuch and neither did Mayor Bloomberg. You apparently do. So, you know what is also “Geferliche” Rishus? No doubt Rabbi Miller would concur? Us not bringing Mashiach while so many are suffering. How come you don’t get all upset about that? Don’t you understand that what you write about is happening because we are STILL in Golus?! Do you get it???!

    So easy to get angry re. Those that don’t know much better. Do you think the “Rishus Thingy” of not organizing a delegation of Rabbonim and Chosheve “balei’batim” to beg our Gedollei HaDor to guide us as how to really end this Golus NOW isn’t “Geferlich”isn’t terrible?

    I think its terrible to desecrate Hashem’s Laws. Its something that disgusts Hashem. Yet I think its also terrible that we watch more and more suffering and aren’t stepping it up re. Bringing Moshiach. That too disgusts Hashem. Did you care enough about THAT and discuss it with Rabbi Miller? How innocents are suffering because of a Golus that we CAN end if we only want to?

    Someone who watches suffering and doesn’t stop it is also a Rasha – ESPECIALLY if he KNOWS better.
    I am disgusted by ANY aveira that is (openly) desecrated. Cruelty – active and passive is also an abomination.

    Let’s put our efforts into SERIOUSLY bringing the Geula- Moshiach. Commenting on the topic you chose is important but its only a terrible symptom and not the true issue – which is we are not doing our all to bring Moshiach!

    Hashem must laugh at us when we are so small minded to only knock the aveiros and not get ourselves out of it! How does that reflect on us?

  3. If this book helps some kids, that is to Hizzoner’s merit, I would think. Let him work out his life between himself and the Creator. Are you going to try to stop his ways??

  4. To Mr. and Mrs. “Gets Me A Little Nervous” and to Mr. and Mrs. “MoshiachNow01”:

    First of all, thank you very much for your strong critique and criticism of what I wrote and your own excellent observations.

    Of course, it goes without saying that all of us in our Bnei Torah communities from the top down, are extremely severely pained by the endless line of terrible suffering that countless people are undergoing. And they are doing countless exemplarary wonderful things to try to help people who are suffering. Just look at the numerous Tzedaka appeal advertisements that are in every issue of Bnei Torah newspapers. Just look at the numerous Tzedaka appeal letters that nearly every Jewish home gets in the mail.

    And, of course, we all know that the biggest help for people is to pray to HaShem to please alleviate their suffering; certainly included in these prayers are our numerous prayers to HaShem to please give us the Geula Shelaima, in which a lot of these problems will not exist.

    Our Gedolay Torah, Sh’lita, are constantly exhorting us about areas of our Avodas HaShem which we need to improve on, especially if we want HaShem to give us the Geula Shelaima.

    Now regarding the Toeiva thingy — and yes, something very bad like this I WILL sarcastically call it a “thingy” — our Gedolay Torah first of all instruct us that we should certainly avoid even talking about the subject! In those instances where there was a need to proclaim what our Torah HaKdosha says about it, they have reiterated that the Torah says that it is a very terrible crime. It certainly does NOT help to bring Moshiach Tzidkaynu; on the contrary, it is something that brings on the world very terrible destruction, Rachmana Litzlan!

  5. (continuation of my previous comment #4)

    We need to remember that the act of Toeiva is something that, until extremely recently, was realized throughout the world by all cultures and religions as being something that is severely repungent and disgusting. It was considered the epitome of what is “NOT NORMAL,” and the people who did it were heavily scorned and ridiculed.

    They were thus called very bad names; “ODD BALLS,” “WEIRDOS,” and “PERVERTS.” [There are a number of other Toeiva names that are such severely terrible words that Matzav cannot allow their use, and so I will not even mention them.]

  6. (continuation of my previous comment #4)

    We need to remember that the act of Toeiva is something that, until extremely recently, was realized throughout the world by all cultures and religions as being something that is severely repungent and disgusting. It was considered the epitome of what is “NOT NORMAL” and “SICK” and “INSANE” and the people who did it were thus heavily scorned and ridiculed and called very bad names.

  7. (continuation of my previous comment #5)
    I do not REMEMBER ever hearing Rav Avigdor Miller, ZT’L, use the word “Rasha” on former Mayor Koch. However, I did hear Rav Miller many times VEHEMENTLY CONDEMN Mayor Koch and his promotion of Toeiva. Futhermore, as I wrote above in my comment #1, in a telephone conversation, Rav Miller told me that the phrase “Yimach Shemo V’Zichro” – “May his (wicked) name and remembrance be obliterated” — which is the phrase that is commonly used to condemn the hyper-villains of the world — IS TOO WEAK OF A CONDEMNATION FOR MAYOR KOCH!!

    So it is completely obvious that Rav Miller did consider Edward Koch to be a pretty bad “Rasha.”

    Now you pointed out: “Ed Koch had no real Chinuch and neither did Mayor Bloomberg.” Very tragically, this is 1,000 % correct! Furthermore, I heard that the previous Rosh Yeshiva – the previous chancellor of the Mirrer Yeshiva in Brooklyn, Rav Shmuel Birnbaum, ZT’L, bluntly said that Edward Koch is a “Tinok Shenishba.”

    [“Tinok Shenishba” – (Literally) “a baby who was captured,” is the term that our Gedolay Torah of recent generations have used in regards to almost all Jews of recent generations who are, unfortunately, not observant of Torah. They explain that if, Chas V’Shalom, a Jewish baby is captured by a foreign army and taken away to a foreign place and thus grows up there among non-Jewish people, there is obviously no blame on him for having no knowledge or practice of Judaism.

    This is a case of a PHYSICAL capture; there can similarly be cases of SPIRITUAL and EMOTIONAL “capture.” One of the hallmarks of the modern era of the last two centuries is that there has been a large turnaway from religion. In the general world, there was heavy propaganda of atheism from modern (so-called) “science” with the theory of Evolution and other fantasies that denied the Divine creation of the universe. In the Jewish world, there were various movements, which, in one way or another, stated that the tenants of our Torah had no place in modern life.

    A person living through this, even someone who had had some Torah Chinuch and had been somewhat observant of Torah, heard his friends and associates telling him: “Times are changing!” “These are different times!” “This is a modern world!” Above all, he keenly saw that the “in place” — the place “where the action is” — was NOT the little old Beis HaMedrosh, but rather the big new REFORM TEMPLE! So when that person fully disgarded his hitherto Torah observance, he cannot be blamed for being swept away — for being “captured” away — by what he thought and was told was going to be the “wave of the future”! And certainly his children, who probably have even less Torah observance, cannot be blamed for their non-religiousness, for they were raised and educated in a non-Torah realm.

    So again, our Gedolay Torah of the last several generations have explained that almost all Jews today who are far from the ways of Torah, cannot be blamed for their non-religiousness, for the whole way of life of their whole environments has been devoid of Torah and even basic belief in G-D.]

  8. (continuation of my previous comment #7)

    So Rav Shmuel Birnbaum stated that Mayor Koch is a Tinok Shenishba. He further explained (and privately elaborated to me) that we need to understand what is the mind set of Mayor Koch (and others like him).

    Do they even believe in G-D? Well, whatever “belief” they have in G-D is pretty weak. Oh yeah, they will mention G-D — to use HIM as A JUSTIFICATION for Toeiva!! Yes, this is their slogan: “G-D MADE THEM —— (Toeivanicks)!” (On his radio show, I heard Yehuda Levin report about one of the times that the Toeiva bill was presented to the City Council; he related that in his speech,) Mayor Koch MANY TIMES used the word “G-D” as he kept exclaiming: “G-D MADE THEM ——!!” “G-D MADE THEM ——!!”

    But do they believe that G-D created mankind with a Divinely Ordained mission of life??

    But do they believe that G-D gives us all instructions about how to act??

    Do they believe that these instructions of G-D are contained in what is called the “Bible” and the whole of “Torah”??

    Do they believe that the Bible and the whole of Torah are the Word of G-D??

    Do they believe that when a person dies, his life continues on the next coming world — called “Olam HaBa” — WHERE G-D WILL JUDGE HIM AND SEVERELY AND PAINFULLY PUNISH HIM FOR THE WICKED THINGS (LIKE TOEIVA) THAT HE DID??

    It is totally obvious what, very unfortunately, the one answer to these questions is.

    So again, whatever they believe about G-D, it is pretty weak.

    They certainly though, do not believe that G-D created man with any kind of a Divinely Ordained mission of life.

    They certainly, do not believe that G-D gives us any instructions in the Torah about how to live.

    They certainly do not believe that the Bible or any of the Torah is the Word of G-D.

    And they certainly do not believe that when they will die, they will be transferred to Olam HaBa where they will have to face the judgement and punishment of G-D!

    So according to their mind set, “Toeiva,” what is wrong with it?? Again, in this mind set, all statements like: “G-D says that it is forbidden!” “G-D says that it is a terrible crime!” “It is not normal!” “It is sick!” “It is disgusting!”:

    ALL TOTALLY DO NOT EXIST!!

    “NORMAL” – “NOT NORMAL” DOES NOT MATTER!!

  9. (continuation of my previous comment #8)

    Oh, so you say that doing Toeiva causes the deadly incurable disease of the very bad Yenem Machla (with the letter “A”) which makes them die??

    Well, smoking a cigar or a cigarette also causes the deadly incurable disease of (the other) Yenem Machla (with the letter “C”) which makes people die!!

    Yet, people still smoke!! Why? Because they get an enjoyment from it! Oh, it is going to eventually going to cause them to die? That’s not much of a problem, for, in their minds, there is no Next World where they will get punished — and right now in the meantime, they have their enjoyment!!!!

    The same is with Toeiva. People do Toeiva!! Why? Because in their imagination, they get a perverse enjoyment from it! Oh, it is going to eventually going to cause them to die? That’s not much of a problem, for, in their minds, there is no Next World where they will get punished — and right now in the meantime, they have what they think is their enjoyment!!!!

    So when we Bnei Torah go and make a public demonstration against Toeiva, the Toeiva and pro-Toeiva and supporting-Toeiva people are, inside, laughing at us! For they look at our making a demonstration against Toeiva as totally ridiculous as if we would be making a demonstration against smoking!!!!

    (Rav Birnbaum thus told me that the ONLY way that we are going to be able to stop the Toeiva thing is to study and teach more Torah: “Bring more Torah into the world!”)

  10. (continuation of my previous comment #9)

    On a different subject, Rav Avigdor Miller, ZT’L, stated the exact same kind of logic:

    Suppose there is the following scenario: It is inside a classroom of a major college. The semester term has just finished; the time is now late at night after all the classes have ended and almost all of the students and faculty have left the campus . In this particular classroom though, the professor — a professor of biology — has been using the evening quiet to finish up the end of term paper work. For a little break, he gets up from his desk and walks over to and looks out of a large open window.

    At that moment, a student, who happens to be one of his students, is walking in the hallway and passes by the open door of that classroom. Glancing inside, he sees his professor leaning over with his head and shoulders stuck outside of the window. It just so happens to be that this student is quite a bum; he had done very few of the assignments, and thus the professor had given him an “F” for the course.

    The student also knows that directly below this window that the teacher is leaning out of, is the incinerator, and at this time, the incinerator is on, burning at full heat. So if the teacher were to fall in there, he would be quickly burnt up well beyond recognition. Then, early each morning, the contents of the incinerator bin are emptied and taken away by the local scavenger company. The student further knows that his instructor is not married, so with no family and the school now on vacation, if the instructor were to be killed, it would probably be a good few days, maybe even a good few weeks, before anyone even realized that he had been missing.

    Furthermore, this science professor, whom this student is enraged at for failing him, this very science professor himself taught in this biology course — and this student was there and heard it many times — that there is no such thing as any kind of a “god”! Rather, he explained that all of the different life forms in the world are merely the results of different sets of extensive complex chemical reactions that “evolved” over the years.

    So Rav Miller asked: “In this student’s mind — with what he has been taught that there is no G-D, and with his assessment that the police will never be able to figure this one out — is there any reason why he should not go over to where his teacher is leaning out the window, and, from behind the teacher, push him all the way out of the window down into the burning incinerator????”

  11. (continuation of my previous comment #10)

    You know what? Let us continue this little story.

    Let us say that this student actually does go and push the professor out the window, Rachmana Litzlan, and, in less than two minutes, the fifty-two year old man is, with excruciating pain, quickly singed to death.

    HOWEVER, totally unlike his assessment, the student is seen!!

    Maybe there was another professor in another classroom a few doors down, who, similarly, was using the late night quiet to take care of some “loose ends.” Maybe there was another student, who, at 10:35, suddenly remembered that he had left one of his notebooks in his locker that was up on this floor. Maybe two or three men of the maintenence night shift just arrived to begin cleaning the building. Maybe it was a crew of electricians and other construction technicians who, now with the vacation, were going to work through the night to begin the job of installing a new lighting system.

    Whoever they are, they pass the classroom’s open door just when the student is inside, hear the professor’s screams, and see exactly what the student did.

    On the spot, they grab the student and hold him in place; at the same time, using their cell phones, they call the campus police. Within three minutes, the police are at the scene and arrest the student. They immediately have the incinerator shut off, and using special hospital equipment, extradite the dead professor from the garbage bin. While the corpse is badly burnt, it is still fully recognizable.

    The bizarre story — with countless people expressing “profound shock and outrage” at the disgruntled student — is heavily blasted through the local news media and quickly receives national attention. The professor receives high
    honors at a massive funeral with the chancellor of the college and the governor of the state delivering heart rending eulogies. The college’s entire science department is dedicated in his memory and the complex of buildings which house the science facilities bears his name. His old classroom with its desks and furnishings is preserved as it was for a memorial, and the exact spot of the crime is marked by a large plaque depicting the senseless murder.

    In the meantime, the student is indicted on three counts of abuse of state educational property, three counts of assault of a school official, and one count of first degree murder — yes, Murder 1; the death penalty WILL be sought.

  12. (continuation of my previous comment #11)

    The boy’s parents though, hire one of the very best world renown criminal defense lawyers in the country.

    As the high profile trial begins and progresses, the defense team meticulously presents piece after piece after piece after piece of evidence: statements of the boy’s family members, statements of the professor’s family members, statements of the boy’s other professors at the college, statements of the boy’s teachers at his high school, statements of the boy’s teachers at his middle school, statements of the boy’s teachers at his elementary school, statements of the boy’s friends, statements of the boy’s family’s friends, statements of the boy’s family’s neighbors, statements of fellow classmates, classmate’s written notes of the professor’s lectures, the professor’s own written notes for his lectures, and the professor’s own taped recordings of his lectures.

    The defense team thus builds up and clearly demonstrates to the court a strong iron-clad case of defense for the boy; IT IS THE EXACT SAME ARGUMENT (which I related above) OF RAV AVIGDOR MILLER!

    The parents of the boy were extremely modern people with an atheistic outlook. When they got married, they held only a civil ceremony. When their children were born, they did not perform on them any religious rituals. As their children were growing up, they never taught them to say any prayers, not at bedtime, not at meals, and not even on Thanksgiving! The very word “G-D” was just not mentioned in that house.

    When the boy entered school, these non-G-D ideas were confirmed and expanded. He well remembers how his fifth grade teacher told the class: “In the ‘olden days,’ people had this book called ‘The Bible,’ which said that something called ‘G-D’ ‘created the heaven and the earth,’ but now, MODERN SCIENCE can tell us how the world began!” In ninth grade biology, he first learned about evolution; now, in college biology, he studied it in detail. His (late) professor, devoted a significant part of the course to the topic of man’s evolution. The professor showed that the species that we call “humans,” is really just a slightly advanced variation of the species of apes. He had with the class a number of discussions in which he empathetically stated that now with the explanations of evolution, there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever of any Divine origins of man.

    He further related the well known fact and graphically demonstrated it with a dissected corpse in the class’s lab, that all the materials of the average human body, when taken and sold on the open market, when adjusted for current inflation, are just worth a mere $9.67!

    So the boy’s lawyers very eloquently and clearly tell the court that here we have a young man who, from beginning to end, both at home and in school, was raised and reared as a solid hard atheist. His parents instilled it in him and his education confirmed it in him: There is no G-D who created man or any other part of the world!

    As he has thus been taught that there is nothing G-dly or sacred or important or special about man over any other part of the world, then why should he think that there is any “wrong” with hurting or harming or even killing a man?

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