Live Breaking News & Updates on Toby Adelman

Stay updated with breaking news from Toby adelman. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.

A suffering formerly Orthodox artist spreads a Jewish spark in northern Maine


Raphael Gribetz at his home in Presque Isle, Maine. (Janine Strong/ via JTA)
Raphael Gribetz at work on a crucifix for a local Catholic parish in Presque Isle, Maine. (Courtesy of Gribetz/ via JTA)
Artist Raphael Gribetz has made his home in the northern Maine city of Presque Isle since 1988. (Scott Olson/ vis JTA)
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine (JTA) In this speck of a city lives an artist who starts his mornings swathed in a tallit and tefillin, spends most of his days making biblically inspired works of art and whiles away the evenings picking out Schubert sonatas on the piano. ....

New York , United States , France General , New Brunswick , Puerto Rico , University Of Maine , Mars Hill , Presque Isle , Greenwich Village , Portage Lake , Aroostook County , Yeshiva University , Puerto Rican , Vince Bucci Invision , Karuna Rawal , Hiram Adelman , Scott Olson , Toby Adelman , Becky Swanson , Rosh Hashanah , Los Angeles , Rachel Darville , Thomas Lequin , Jonathan Gribetz , Shaina Holtz , Raphael Gribetz ,

At the northern tip of Maine, this artist fostered a Jewish community. It couldn't help him escape a troubled past.


Artist Raphael Gribetz has lived in the northern Maine city of Presque Isle since 1985. (Scott Olson)
Advertisement
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine (JTA) In this speck of a city lives an artist who starts his mornings swathed in a tallit and tefillin, spends most of his days making biblically inspired works of art and whiles away the evenings picking out Schubert sonatas on the piano.
Raphael Gribetz has lived in Presque Isle since 1985, when he and his late wife moved here from the even more remote Portage Lake (population: 391) so she could pursue a degree in social work.
Presque Isle is hundreds of miles and a world away from the Maine of postcard-perfect lighthouses and craggy shorelines, and it’s an unlikely destination for a yeshiva-educated man born into an Orthodox family of seven children in New York City in 1952. But Gribetz has been defying expectations for much of his life. ....

New York , United States , France General , New Brunswick , Puerto Rico , University Of Maine , Mars Hill , Presque Isle , Greenwich Village , Portage Lake , Aroostook County , Yeshiva University , Puerto Rican , Hiram Adelman , Toby Adelman , Raphael Gribetz , Yom Kippur , Rosh Hashanah , Robert Grove , Thomas Lequin , Jackson Pollock , City College Of New York , Aroostook Hebrew Community Center , Boston Globe , New York City , City College ,