By Andrew Goretsky

As we gather for Rosh Hashanah, this season of reflection and renewal, I find myself thinking about stones — specifically, the weathered limestone walls of a small synagogue I visited this summer in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Walking through the narrow streets of that ancient city this past summer, I visited what may be the world’s oldest Sephardic synagogue still in use. Established in 1546 by Jews fleeing the Spanish Expulsion of 1492, this sacred space has endured for nearly five centuries. It survived the great earthquake of 1667, the horrors of World War II and the Croatian War of Independence in the 1990s. Each time, the community rebuilt, restored and renewed this sacred space.

Standing in that sanctuary, I was struck by a profound truth: We are part of an unbroken ch

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