Wikipedia's first sentence called it “sefer torah”. Today it says “hand-written copy of the torah assembled from the individual sheaves of torah manuscripts”.
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 2025 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 2025
Yanov Torah is a hand-written copy of the Torah assembled from the individual sheaves of Torah manuscripts, smuggled into the Janowska concentration camp during the Holocaust in World War II. The Janowska, also known as the Yanov death camp, located not far from the Lwów Ghetto , was a place of execution of tens of thousands of Polish Jews between September 1941 and November 1943. A Sefer Torah , the holiest book within Judaism venerated by Jews , was reassembled by prisoners from manuscripts unearthed at Lwów's Jewish cemetery. Following World War II, it was smuggled out of the then Soviet Union and brought to Los Angeles. It has been donated to the rabbinical programs at Hebrew Union College, where it is taken on tour to various synagogues and assemblies so that the story of its history can be told.
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1253352560.
The opening as it stood in 2010
The Yanov Torah displayed to seminary students at InterSem 2009 in Malibu, California The Yanov Torah is a Sefer Torah , or a specially hand-written copy of the Torah or Pentateuch , which is the holiest book within Judaism and venerated by Jews . It was assembled from the collected individual Torah manuscript sheaves which had been smuggled into the Yanov Nazi work camp during World War II. The reassembled Torah was then smuggled out of the then Soviet Union, and brought to Los Angeles. It has been donated to the rabbinical programs at Hebrew Union College, where it is taken on tour to various synagogues and assemblies, so that the story of its history can be told. Torah's tale is kept alive, Duke Helfand, November 20, 2008 [accessed on 5-3-2009]
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 323298416.
The opening as it stood in 2015 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
The Yanov Torah is a hand-written copy of the Torah assembled from the individual sheaves of Torah manuscripts, smuggled into the Janowska concentration camp during the Holocaust in World War II.The Janowska, also known as the Yanov death camp, located not far from the Lwów Ghetto , was a place of execution of tens of thousands of Polish Jews between September 1941 and November 1943.A Sefer Torah , the holiest book within Judaism venerated by Jews , was reassembled by prisoners from manuscripts unearthed at the Lwów 's Jewish cemetery.Following World War II it was smuggled out of the then Soviet Union, and brought to Los Angeles. It has been donated to the rabbinical programs at Hebrew Union College, where it is taken on tour to various synagogues and assemblies, so that the story of its history can be told. Torah's tale is kept alive, Duke Helfand, November 20, 2008 [accessed on 5-3-2009]
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 645491313.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Hand-written copy of the Torah The Yanov Torah is a hand-written copy of the Torah assembled from the individual sheaves of Torah manuscripts, smuggled into the Janowska concentration camp during the Holocaust in World War II. The Janowska, also known as the Yanov death camp, located not far from the Lwów Ghetto , was a place of execution of tens of thousands of Polish Jews between September 1941 and November 1943. A Sefer Torah , the holiest book within Judaism venerated by Jews , was reassembled by prisoners from manuscripts unearthed at the Lwów 's Jewish cemetery. Following World War II it was smuggled out of the then Soviet Union, and brought to Los Angeles. It has been donated to the rabbinical programs at Hebrew Union College, where it is taken on tour to various synagogues and assemblies, so that the story of its history can be told. Torah's tale is kept alive, Duke Helfand, November 20, 2008 [accessed on 5-3-2009]
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1149287248.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “sefer torah”. Today it says “hand-written copy of the torah assembled from the individual sheaves of torah manuscripts”. 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
sefer torah
Now
hand-written copy of the torah assembled from the individual sheaves of torah manuscripts
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.
