Anthony Cardinale

Anthony Cardinale,an award-winning journalist and playwright, has combined factual reporting and dramatic storytelling in his book, "The Red Heifer: A Jewish Cry for Messiah." The veteran Buffalo News reporter interviewed Jews and Arabs during five journeys to Israel, as well as Palestinian refugees in Jordan. Their interviews are recreated in chapters on the current search for a red heifer in Israel by radical Orthodox Jews seeking to rebuild the Temple and bring the Messiah. Between those interviews are chapters of a novel, "The Red Heifer," based on his award-winning stage play of the same title. This romantic tale explores the conflicts among Jews and Arabs when a red heifer is given by a female Bedouin nomad to an Arab, who unwittingly sells it to radical Jews seeking to rebuild the Temple next to the Muslim Dome of the Rock, risking a regional religious war. An upstate New Yorker, Cardinale is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University and holds a master's degree from Northwestern University. His love affair with the Jewish people began after his baptism in the Holy Spirit many years ago. Cardinale writes the one-minute radio messages of Eagles' Wings Ministries, a powerful supporter of Israel. He is married to Shirah Cardinale, a messianic songwriter and recording artist who created the CD "Purple Heart."