The Day of Atonement, which begins at sundown tonight, is a 24-plus hour period of intense reflection, prayer and soul-searching that is the culmination of the annual Ten Days of Repentance that usher in the Jewish New Year. It can be a difficult time for many reasons, not the least of which is that one of the long-held rituals of the holiday season calls for visiting the gravesites of your loved ones.

The annual visit that I make to the graves of my parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and my great uncles and aunts, can trigger sadness, but the visits do recharge the soul. The graves are located about 45 minutes from the Attleboros, at one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in the state, the Baker Street Cemetery, which is actually a collection of about two dozen cemeteries along a large stretch of land in the West Roxbury section of Boston. Many of the cemeteries are named after synagogues that no longer exist, but which had been a part of many generations until neighborhoods changed - and the houses of worship vanished into history.

Thankfully, that has not happened in Attleboro, where the cemetery and synagogue have been able to co-exist, and flourish, for nearly a century. On Sunday, the local Jewish community marked the rededication of the Congregation Agduas Achim Hebrew Cemetery in the city's Dodgeville area on the occasion of its 100th anniversary, and the synagogue will mark its centennial three years from now.

When the congregation's spiritual leader, Rabbi Elyse Wechterman, pitched the idea for a story on the cemetery, which I had not realized existed, I was interested in pursuing it, because the cemetery tells the story of more than a Jewish community; it is also the story of some of the pioneering men and women who helped transform Attleboro from a town into a thriving industrial city.

The story, which was published in the Sunday, Sept. 28, edition of The Sun Chronicle, turned out to be an ideal one to write during the High Holiday season, as reporting the story involved talking to people about their loved ones, never an easy task to do, and something that is harder to do at this time of the year, when memories pour forth as easily as the honey spreads on the Challah bread that is eaten as a sign of the Jewish New Year. I was amazed at the cooperation that I received, not only from the rabbi, but from the synagogue members I contacted. Gladys Rotenberg, the widow of Judge Ernest Rotenberg, agreed to have her photo taken in front of her late husband's gravestone, and she generously lent the newspaper two vintage pictures to reproduce: one showing the congregation's sisterhood from the 1950s, and another showing the Louis and Eta Rotenberg family.

Lois Fine-Sargeant, the daughter-in-law of Charles Fine's son Sam and widow of Jerry Fine, also agreed to come down to the cemetery, even though she acknowledged that she doesn't make many trips there because such visits summon up memories that can be, at times, painful. Still, Lois was most generous, letting us reproduce a couple of priceless Fine family photos, from the turn of the century and 1935, and lending me "The Fine Farm Cookbook" written by Ruth Fine Handy, which contained priceless information about Charles and Bayla Fine, among two of the most influential immigrants to Attleboro in the early part of the 20th century.

I know what Lois means about cemetery visits being painful, because it isn't easy to visit my parents' graves and those of my grandparents; such visits spark memories that aren't always pleasant, and even when fond memories result, so do tears because let's face it: Most of us really do miss our parents and grandparents, and can't fill that void.

But getting to meet Lois and Gladys helped ease the pain that is unfortunately inherent in this time of the year. I felt a connection in meeting them - perhaps it was that their husband's families had been European immigrants, like my parents' families. But whatever the reason, their kind responses to my questions produced a better story and also helped fill the void that I usually feel at this bittersweet time of the year.

So thank you Gladys, Lois, Ruth (for your lovely prose), and thanks also to Max Volterra for his time. They, along with the rabbi, helped turn an intimidating task into a labor of love.

Happy New Year, to all of you, and may each of you be inscribed in the Book of Life - and have an easy fast on Thursday.

LARRY KESSLER is a Sun Chronicle local news editor who can be reached at lkessler@thesunchronicle.com. To see Mark Stockwell's video on the cemetery, narrated by Rabbi Elyse Wechterman, go to thesunchronicle.com/local_video