In May, I lost my friend of more than 40 years — not to illness, as might be expected at age 71, but to violence.

Someone killed Cara Trager.

And her family and her many friends think it may have been because she was Jewish.

Cara practiced as a Conservative Jew and championed the state of Israel, which she visited 11 times.

In 2024 she went there with her husband Mike to meet families of Israelis still held hostage.

“Sadly, antisemitism has reared its ugly head again,” Cara, a freelance journalist, wrote last year.

“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 were taking a stroll on Union Turnpike after dinner at a kosher Israeli restaurant in Queens.

At the same time a driver on nearby Francis Lewis Boulevard ran a red light and collided with a car.

Dawood Faisal, 22, didn’t stop: He kept going, allegedly racing along at 75 miles per hour — more than twice the limit.

As Cara and Mike stepped into a crosswalk, Faisal plowed into two vehicles, propelling one toward the Tragers.

Faisal abandoned his car and would have escaped if some good Samaritan witnesses hadn’t managed to tackle him.

But the damage was done: The car Faisal recklessly hit had run over my friends.

Mike came away with minor injuries, but Cara suffered severe head trauma.

She clung to life for four days before finally passing away.

Police arrested Faisal at the scene.

He’s been charged with manslaughter in the second degree, among other crimes, and is now in custody on Rikers Island, with a bail hearing scheduled for October.

But the Trager family believes antisemitism might have motivated Faisal’s lethal hit-and-run — because of a troubling incident that came to light after his arrest.

In the weeks before the accident, Faisal allegedly targeted a kosher bagel shop in Fresh Meadows that displayed Israeli flags and banners.

He was twice captured on video upending outdoor plant stands and throwing fistfuls of dirt at the store’s windows and outer walls.

In a cruel coincidence, her daughter Rachel told 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 criminal mischief, among other charges, for destroying property at the bagel shop.

He faces a prison sentence of up to seven years if convicted.

To the Trager family, Faisal’s actions represent a pattern of antisemitic behavior.

If Faisal knew he was speeding through a heavily Jewish neighborhood, they contend, the car accident too might qualify as a hate crime.

And while no evidence has yet emerged that Faisal targeted Cara and Mike because of their faith, this city owes it to the family to investigate that motive.

I’ve never before felt so strongly that Jews in New York City are endangered.

This year, anti-Jewish hate crimes in the five boroughs have increased by 8.5%, according to the NYPD.

Jews are targeted in 70% of all hate crimes in the city, more than all other groups put together.

In recent weeks, the Trager family asked Mayor Zohran Mamdani to meet with them to discuss their concerns about citywide antisemitism. The request was declined.

Cara had refused to leave her beloved Queens after Mamdani was elected mayor — even though, as Mike told me, he saw “the writing on the wall” and suggested to Cara that they move.

I knew Cara Trager for decades: We and the Tragers each had a son and a daughter around the same time, clinching our friendship for life.

Cara had a capacity for delight in everyday existence that was impossible to miss. No wonder her funeral drew 400 mourners.

It’s always hard to lose a friend, but it’s harder to lose one so suddenly — and harder still to be left wondering if her death was murder.

Cara loved the Jewish people, but she loved nothing more than being a wife, mother and grandmother.

Her last email to me, in December 2025, said it all.

“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 attorney will pull out all the stops to bring Faisal Dawood to justice.

Surely, too, Mayor Mamdani can take the opportunity — as an act of good faith — to console a grieving Jewish family, pledge opposition to antisemitism and honor my slain friend’s cherished memory.

Bob Brody, a consultant and essayist, is author of the memoir “Playing Catch with Strangers: A Family Guy (Reluctantly) Comes of Age.”