Wikipedia's first sentence called it “author of several books”. Today it says “american -born israeli translator”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “American-born Israeli translator, biographer, literary critic, and novelist”. It now reads “American-born Israeli translator, biographer, , and novelist”.
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 2010 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 2010
Hillel Halkin is the author of several books, including the The New York Times bestselling Letters to an American-Jewish Friend: A Zionist Polemic and Across the Sabbath River: In Search of a Lost Tribe of Israel . He is a prominent translator of Hebrew and Yiddish Literature into English, including works of S.Y. In 1987 he produced what has come to be the definitive translation of Sholem Aleichem 's Yiddish masterpiece Tevye the Dairyman , which, years earlier, had been the basis for the hit Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof . Halkin also writes political commentary on Israel. His articles have been published in Commentary , The New Republic , The Jerusalem Post and other prominent publications. Under the pseudonym "Philologos," he maintains a weekly column on Jewish languages in The Forward . He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Jewish Review of Books .1
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 370976242.
The opening as it stood in 2015 7 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Hillel Halkin (born 1939) is an American -born Israeli translator, biographer, literary critic , and novelist, who has lived in Israel since 1970.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 645465628.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Hillel Halkin ( ; born 1939) is an American -born Israeli translator , biographer, literary critic , and novelist , who has lived in Israel since 1970.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 939529872.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
American-born Israeli translator, biographer, literary critic, and novelist Hillel Halkin ( ; born 1939) is an American -born Israeli translator , biographer, literary critic , and novelist who has lived in Israel since 1970.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1177280976.
The opening as it stood in 2025
American-born Israeli translator, biographer, literary critic, and novelist Hillel Halkin ( Hebrew : הלל הלקין ; born 1939) is an American -born Israeli translator , biographer, literary critic , and novelist who has lived in Israel since 1970.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1254667056. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “author of several books”. Today it says “american -born israeli translator”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “American-born Israeli translator, biographer, literary critic, and novelist”. It now reads “American-born Israeli translator, biographer, , and novelist”. 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
author of several books
Now
american -born israeli translator
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.
