Wikipedia's first sentence called it “american violinist of jewish descent”. Today it says “american violinist”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “American concert violinist”. It now reads “American violinist (born 1971)”.
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 2005 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 2005
Gil Shaham Gil Shaham (born February 19 , 1971 ) is an award-winning Israeli violinist .1Born in Urbana , Illinois , he moved to Israel at the age of 2 with his parents. At 10 he made debuts with the Jerusalem Symphony and Israel Philharmonic orchestras, and was admitted to Juilliard the following year. Shaham's career took off in 1989 when he was called to replace an ailing Itzhak Perlman for a series of concerts with Michael Tilson Thomas and the LSO . Flying to London on a day's notice, he played to glowing reviews. Since then Shaham has established himself as a leading virtuoso. He has performed with many of the world's leading orchestras and has recorded widely. In 1990 he received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant .2
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 17058967.
The opening as it stood in 2010 7 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Gil Shaham (born February 19, 1971) is an award-winning Israeli-American violinist .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 365933763.
The opening as it stood in 2015
Gil Shaham (born February 19, 1971) is an American violinist of Jewish descent.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 662853619.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Gil Shaham ( Hebrew : גיל שחם; born February 19, 1971) is an American violinist of Israeli Jewish descent.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 961979005.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Gil Shaham ( Hebrew : גיל שחם; born February 19, 1971) is an American violinist of Jewish descent.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1175721077.
The opening as it stood in 2025
American concert violinist Gil Shaham ( Hebrew : גיל שחם; born February 19, 1971) is an American violinist. His accolades include a Grammy Award in 1999, and he has performed as a soloist with such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic , Berlin Philharmonic , Vienna Philharmonic , Israel Philharmonic Orchestra , Chicago Symphony Orchestra , Cleveland Orchestra , San Francisco Symphony , Russian National Orchestra , Academy of St.Martin in the Fields , Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra , and the Orchestre de Paris .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1290910658. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “american violinist of jewish descent”. Today it says “american violinist”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “American concert violinist”. It now reads “American violinist (born 1971)”. Read the current article and compare.
2005
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 October 7, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
american violinist of jewish descent
Now
american violinist
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.
