A Jew-hater killed my friend — Zohran Mamdani owes – Latest News
In May, I misplaced my friend of more than 40 years — to not sickness, as is likely to be anticipated at age 71, however to violence.
Someone killed Cara Trager.
And her household and her many mates suppose it might have been as a result of she was Jewish.
Cara practiced as a Conservative Jew and championed the state of Israel, which she visited 11 occasions.
In 2024 she went there along with her husband Mike to fulfill households of Israelis nonetheless held hostage.
“Sadly, antisemitism has reared its ugly head again,” Cara, a freelance journalist, wrote final yr.
“It makes no pretenses about hating us and our ancestral homeland. And it scares me about the future for our children and grandchildren.”
On Memorial Day, Cara and Mike had been taking a stroll on Union Turnpike after dinner at a kosher Israeli restaurant in Queens.
At the identical time a driver on close by Francis Lewis Boulevard ran a pink mild and collided with a car.
Dawood Faisal, 22, didn’t stop: He saved going, allegedly racing alongside at 75 miles per hour — more than twice the restrict.
As Cara and Mike stepped into a crosswalk, Faisal plowed into two automobiles, propelling one towards the Tragers.
Faisal deserted his car and would have escaped if some good Samaritan witnesses hadn’t managed to deal with him.
Michael Trager, 70, holds a picture of himself and his spouse Cara, who was mowed down in May. Stephen Yang for NY Post
But the harm was accomplished: The car Faisal recklessly hit had run over my mates.
Mike got here away with minor accidents, however Cara suffered extreme head trauma.
She clung to life for 4 days earlier than lastly passing away.
Police arrested Faisal on the scene.
He’s been charged with manslaughter within the second degree, amongst different crimes, and is now in custody on Rikers Island, with a bail listening to scheduled for October.
But the Trager household believes antisemitism might need motivated Faisal’s deadly hit-and-run — as a result of of a troubling incident that got here to mild after his arrest.
In the weeks earlier than the accident, Faisal allegedly focused a kosher bagel store in Fresh Meadows that displayed Israeli flags and banners.
He was twice captured on video upending outside plant stands and throwing fistfuls of filth on the store’s home windows and outer partitions.
In a merciless coincidence, her daughter Rachel instructed me, “We spoke about the hate crimes before she was killed.”
Cara “had seen the video of the guy who ended up killing her.”
In July, Faisal was charged with a hate crime of prison mischief, amongst different expenses, for destroying property on the bagel store.
He faces a jail sentence of up to seven years if convicted.
To the Trager household, Faisal’s actions signify a sample of antisemitic habits.
If Faisal knew he was dashing via a closely Jewish neighborhood, they contend, the car accident too would possibly qualify as a hate crime.
And whereas no proof has but emerged that Faisal focused Cara and Mike as a result of of their religion, this metropolis owes it to the household to analyze that motive.
I’ve by no means earlier than felt so strongly that Jews in New York City are endangered.
This yr, anti-Jewish hate crimes within the 5 boroughs have elevated by 8.5%, in accordance with the NYPD.
Jews are focused in 70% of all hate crimes within the metropolis, more than all different teams put collectively.
In latest weeks, the Trager household requested Mayor Zohran Mamdani to fulfill with them to debate their issues about citywide antisemitism. The request was declined.
Cara had refused to go away her beloved Queens after Mamdani was elected mayor — despite the fact that, as Mike instructed me, he noticed “the writing on the wall” and urged to Cara that they transfer.
I knew Cara Trager for many years: We and the Tragers every had a son and a daughter across the identical time, clinching our friendship for all times.
Cara had a capability for enjoyment of on a regular basis existence that was not possible to overlook. No surprise her funeral drew 400 mourners.
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It’s all the time arduous to lose a friend, however it’s more durable to lose one so abruptly — and more durable nonetheless to be left questioning if her death was homicide.
Cara liked the Jewish people, however she liked nothing more than being a spouse, mom and grandmother.
Her final electronic mail to me, in December 2025, mentioned all of it.
“Leaving for DC this morning to see Eric and family for Chanukah and then on 12/24 to Israel to see Rachel and family,” she wrote. “Have kids, will travel, I say.”
Surely our police and district legal professional will pull out all of the stops to deliver Faisal Dawood to justice.
Surely, too, Mayor Mamdani can take the chance — as an act of good religion — to console a grieving Jewish household, pledge opposition to antisemitism and honor my slain friend’s cherished reminiscence.
Bob Brody, a advisor and essayist, is writer of the memoir “Playing Catch with Strangers: A Family Guy (Reluctantly) Comes of Age.”
