Wikipedia's first sentence called it “spoken natively by a large proportion of the population”. Today it says “spoken natively by a considerable proportion of the population of israel”.
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 2020 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 2020
Russian) sign at the Ministry of the Interior/Ministry of Immigrant Absorption in Haifa .1 The multilingual warning (English, Hebrew, Arabic and Russian) on the optical cable manhole cover in Tel Aviv . The Russian language is spoken natively by a large proportion of the population of Israel , reaching about 20 percent of the total population by 1989, mostly by immigrants who came from the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s and later years.2 It is a major foreign language in the country, and is used in many aspects of life. Russian is by far the most used non-official native language in Israel. The government and businesses often provide information in Russian, and it is semi-official in some areas with high concentration of Russian Jewish immigrants.3 The Russian-speaking population of Israel is the world's third-largest population of Russian native-speakers living outside the former Soviet Union territories after Germany and the United States , and the highest as a proportion of the population. As of 2013, 1,231,003 residents of the Post-Soviet states have immigrated to Israel since the fall of the Soviet Union. As of 2017, there are up to 1.5 million Russian-speaking Israelis out of total population of 8,700,000 (17.25%).
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 957057669.
The opening as it stood in 2015
A shop in Haifa with Russian and Hebrew signs A multilingual (Hebrew, Arabic, English, and Russian) sign at the Ministry of the Interior/Ministry of Immigrant Absorption in Haifa . The multilingual warning (English, Hebrew, Arabic and Russian) on the optical cable manhole cover in Tel Aviv . The Russian language in Israel is spoken natively by a large proportion of the population, reaching about 20 percent of the total population by 1989, mostly by immigrants who came from the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s and later years. It is a major foreign language in the country and is used in many aspects of life. Russian is by far the most widely spoken non-official language in Israel. The government and businesses often provide information in Russian, and it is semi-official in some areas with high concentration of Russian Jewish immigrants. The Russian-speaking population of Israel is the world's third-largest population of Russian native-speakers living outside the former Soviet Union territories after Germany and the United States , and the highest as a proportion of the population. As of 2013, 1,231,003 residents of the Post-Soviet states have immigrated to Israel.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 664112112.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Status of the Russian language in Israel See also: Russian Jews in Israel and Russians in Israel "Vegetables and fruits" shop sign in Haifa in Russian and Hebrew. A multilingual (Hebrew, Arabic, English, and Russian) sign at the Ministry of Interior / Ministry of Immigrant Absorption in Haifa . The multilingual warning (English, Hebrew, Arabic and Russian) on the optical cable manhole cover in Tel Aviv . The Russian language is spoken natively by a considerable proportion of the population of Israel , mostly by immigrants who came from the former Soviet Union from 1989 onwards. It is a major foreign language in the country, and is used in many aspects of life. Russian is the third most common native language in Israel after Modern Hebrew and Arabic .Government institutions and businesses often also provide information and services in Russian, and is has effectively become semi-official in some areas with high concentration of Russian-speaking immigrants. The Russian-speaking population of Israel is the world's third-largest population of Russian native-speakers living outside the former Soviet Union territories after Germany and the United States , and the highest as a proportion of the population. As of 2013, 1,231,003 residents of the Post-Soviet states have immigrated to Israel since the fall of the Soviet Union. As of 2017, there are up to 1.5 million Russian-speaking Israelis out of total population of 8,700,000 (17.25%). "Total Immigration to Israel by Select Country by Year" . К визиту Нетаньяху: что Россия может получить от экономики Израиля Алексей Голубович, Forbes Russia, 09.03.2017
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1168575080.
The opening as it stood in 2025 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
A multilingual (Hebrew, Arabic, English, and Russian) sign at the Ministry of Interior / Ministry of Immigrant Absorption in Haifa . The multilingual warning (English, Hebrew, Arabic and Russian) on the optical cable manhole cover in Tel Aviv . The Russian language is spoken natively by a considerable proportion of the population of Israel , mostly by immigrants who came from the former Soviet Union from 1989 onwards. It is a major foreign language in the country, and is used in many aspects of life. Russian is the third most common native language in Israel after Modern Hebrew and Arabic . Government institutions and businesses often also provide information and services in Russian, and has effectively become semi-official in some areas with high concentration of Russian-speaking immigrants. The Russian-speaking population of Israel is the world's third-largest population of Russian native-speakers living outside the former Soviet Union territories after Germany and the United States , and the highest as a proportion of the population. As of 2013, 1,231,003 residents of the Post-Soviet states have immigrated to Israel since the fall of the Soviet Union. As of 2017, there are up to 1.5 million Russian-speaking Israelis out of total population of 8,700,000 (17.25%). "Total Immigration to Israel by Select Country by Year" . К визиту Нетаньяху: что Россия может получить от экономики Израиля Алексей Голубович, Forbes Russia, 09.03.2017
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1292353014. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “spoken natively by a large proportion of the population”. Today it says “spoken natively by a considerable proportion of the population of israel”. Read the current article and compare.
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 2015, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
spoken natively by a large proportion of the population
Now
spoken natively by a considerable proportion of the population of israel
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.
