Wikipedia's first sentence called it “born in tzfat”. Today it says “prolific author”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2015 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2015
Chaim Hirschensohn (1857 – 1935) was born in Tzfat , (city in the Galilee , Israel), to Rabbi Yaakov Mordechai Hirschensohn, who had emigrated there from Pinsk in 1848. In 1864, the family (which included Chaim's older brother, Rabbi Yitzchok Hirschensohn) moved to Jerusalem . Like his brother, the young Zionist Chaim Hirschensohn worked with Eliezer Ben-Yehuda to revive spoken Hebrew and helped found the Safah Berurah ("Plain Language") society in Jerusalem. He and his wife Chava published works and journals both in Hebrew and Yiddish . In 1904, he was hired as the Chief Rabbi of Hoboken, New Jersey , a post that included "Hoboken, West Hoboken , Jersey City Heights , Union Hill and the Environs" (from title page of Malki Ba-Kodesh , vol. 2; Hoboken, 1921 ) in its jurisdiction. He remained in Hoboken until his death in 1935. Rabbi Hirschensohn wrote on many subjects, including the relationship between Judaism and democracy, the status of women, and conflicts between traditional Judaism and modern scholarship and science. He is probably best known for Malki Ba-Kodesh , a 6-volume work he published between 1919 and 1928, in which he explores the halakhot (Jewish laws) that might govern a future Jewish state . Hirschensohn's daughter Tamar married Rabbi David de Sola Pool and another daughter, Tehilla Lichtenstein headed the Jewish Science movement. "Jewish Life in Hudson County, Past and Present" , copy of article from Jewish Standard , February 1, 2008.1
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 660243038.
The opening as it stood in 2010
Rabbi Chaim Hirschensohn (1857 – 1935) was born in Tzfat , (city in the Galilee , Israel), to Rabbi Yaakov Mordechai Hirschensohn, who had emigrated there from Pinsk in 1848. In 1864, the family (which included Chaim's older brother, Rabbi Yitzchok Hirschensohn) moved to Jerusalem . Like his brother, the young Zionist Chaim Hirschensohn worked with Eliezer Ben-Yehuda to revive spoken Hebrew and helped found the Safah Berurah ("Plain Language") society in Jerusalem. He and his wife Chava published works and journals both in Hebrew and Yiddish . In 1904, he was hired as the Chief Rabbi of Hoboken, New Jersey , a post that included "Hoboken, West Hoboken, Jersey City Heights, Union Hill and the Environs" (from title page of Malki Ba-Kodesh , vol. 2; Hoboken, 1921 ) in its jurisdiction. He remained in Hoboken until his death in 1935. Rabbi Hirschensohn wrote on many subjects, including the relationship between Judaism and democracy, the status of women, and conflicts between traditional Judaism and modern scholarship and science. He is probably best known for Malki Ba-Kodesh , a 6-volume work he published between 1919 and 1928, in which he explores the halakhot (Jewish laws) that might govern a future Jewish state .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 361718020.
The opening as it stood in 2020 10 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Rabbi Chaim Hirschensohn ( , 1857 – 1935) was a prolific author, rabbi, thinker, and early proponent of Religious Zionism .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 940270837.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
American rabbi (1857–1935) Rabbi Chaim Hirschensohn ( , 1857 – 1935) was a prolific author, rabbi, thinker, and early proponent of Religious Zionism .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1135287590.
The opening as it stood in 2025
American rabbi (1857–1935) Rabbi Chaim Hirschensohn ( Hebrew : חיים הירשנזון ; 1857 – 1935) was a prolific author, rabbi, thinker, and early proponent of Religious Zionism .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1293925994. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “born in tzfat”. Today it says “prolific author”. Read the current article and compare.
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2010, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
born in tzfat
Now
prolific author
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
