NEW YORK (VINnews) — Relatives of a 71-year-old Jewish journalist killed in a Memorial Day crash in Queens say they asked Mayor Zohran Mamdani to meet with them about antisemitism in the city and that the request was declined, a family friend wrote this week.​

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Cara Trager, a Conservative Jew and longtime Queens communal figure, died May 29 from injuries suffered four days earlier, when she and her husband, Michael Trager, were struck in a crosswalk near Union Turnpike and Francis Lewis Boulevard in Fresh Meadows. They were walking home after dinner at a kosher Israeli restaurant, relatives and contemporaneous reports said.​

Prosecutors say Dawood Faisal, 22, of Fresh Meadows, was driving a 2013 Toyota Prius more than 75 mph in a 35-mph zone and ran at least two red lights shortly after 7:45 p.m. on May 25. Authorities say he struck other vehicles, sending one into the couple. Cara Trager suffered severe head trauma. Michael Trager was treated for lesser injuries.​

Faisal allegedly tried to flee on foot before bystanders held him for police. He has been charged with second-degree manslaughter, leaving the scene of a collision that resulted in death, reckless driving and other counts. He has pleaded not guilty and remains in custody. A bail hearing is scheduled for October, according to published accounts of the case.

The crash itself has not been charged as a hate crime. A spokesperson for Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz has said prosecutors have not presented evidence that the Tragers were specifically targeted and that authorities are not investigating the collision as a bias attack.​

Family members have still pressed for a closer look at motive. In the days before the crash, Faisal was separately accused of vandalizing Bagels & Co., a kosher shop in Fresh Meadows that displayed Israeli flags. Prosecutors say he knocked over plant stands and threw dirt at the storefront in incidents on May 15 and May 23. In late July, he was arraigned on criminal mischief charges treated as hate crimes in connection with those episodes.​

Michael Trager has said he does not believe his wife was singled out by name, but he has argued that someone driving recklessly through a heavily Jewish neighborhood at that hour was likely to hit a Jewish pedestrian. Their daughter, Rachel Sales, has said the bagel-shop vandalism was already being discussed in the family before the crash and that an earlier arrest might have changed what followed.

Trager was a Bronx-born freelance journalist who wrote for Newsday and other outlets and was active at Etz Hayim at Hollis Hills Bayside and the Solomon Schechter School of Queens. Relatives described her as a committed Zionist who visited Israel 11 times and traveled there in 2024 to sit with families of hostages. About 400 people attended her funeral.​

In a New York Post opinion essay published Monday, family friend Bob Brody wrote that the Tragers recently asked Mamdani to meet about citywide antisemitism and that the request was declined. Brody, who said he had known Cara Trager for decades, argued the mayor should console the family and address their concerns. City Hall did not immediately issue a public response to that account.​

Michael Trager has said he did meet with Phylisa Wisdom, executive director of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, and described that conversation as sympathetic. The family’s complaint, as relayed by Brody, is that the mayor himself would not sit down with them.​

The case drew fresh attention Tuesday after commentary circulated on social media highlighting Trager’s death, the driver’s alleged record at the kosher shop, and the reported refusal of a mayoral meeting.

Faisal remains presumed innocent of all charges. Prosecutors have not alleged that antisemitism caused the fatal crash. The family continues to ask that investigators fully examine whether bias played any role and that city officials treat anti-Jewish incidents in Queens as more than isolated property crimes.​