Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding –– Albert Einstein
By Jacqueline Semha Gmach in San Diego
Recently, I discovered that my name appeared among more than 885,279 selected entries in Grokipedia, Elon Musk’s AI generated encyclopedia competing with Wikipedia. The message came from a machine-scale archive. The number struck me.
It reminded me that memories now live in many places.
I was once part of the approximately 850,000 Jews who left Arab countries, carrying memory without knowing where it would one day rest.
Today, decades later, I see that memory appearing in a digital archive — one entry among hundreds of thousands — preserved in ways my younger self could never have imagined.
The comparison is not about statistics.
It is about continuity.
Once, memory depended on survival.
Now, memory depends on meaning.
Technology can store stories.
Communities can honor them.
But only human beings can give them purpose.
In a world that often feels uncertain, the way we remember — and the way we treat one another — matters more than ever.
So, my question remains:
Will we remember with kindness?
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San Diego Jewish community activist Jacqueline Semha Gmach, a native of Tunisia, is the founder of “We are the Tree of Life” an organization dedicated to the revival of arts created by Jews during their oppression in the Holocaust.