Skip to content
Shoresh Wiki

Daniel Lewin: what Wikipedia removed

Daniel Lewin was the Akamai co-founder and former Israeli commando believed to be the first person killed in the September 11 attacks. The 2005 opening described him dying “aboard American Airlines Flight 11 during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack,” and identified his military background in Sayeret Matkal, “a top-secret counter-terrorism unit.” Today’s opening calls it only “the September 11 attacks” and drops the description of his counter-terrorism unit, though the word survives three times in the article. A reader today learns Lewin died in the September 11 attacks and not that Wikipedia’s own opening once called it a terrorist attack, or that he had served in an elite Israeli counter-terrorism unit.

The word “terror” appeared 2 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2005. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 3. Checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01.

The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot

Section titled “The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot”
word20052010201520206 October 20232025
terror200000

Counts are of the opening paragraph only, the part most readers, search engines and AI training sets ever quote.

What was taken out

Section titled “What was taken out”
  • The old opening’s terse dateline was replaced with a fuller description of Lewin as an Israeli-American entrepreneur.
  • The description of Sayeret Matkal as a top-secret counter-terrorism unit was dropped from the opening.
  • The detail that Lewin attended the Technion in Haifa while working was dropped from the opening.
  • The description of his death as occurring during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack was dropped; today’s opening calls it only the September 11 attacks.

How it opened then, and now

Section titled “How it opened then, and now”

2005 (revision 16262412):

Daniel “Danny” M. Lewin ( 1970 – September 11 2001 ) was a mathematician and entrepreneur , best known for cofounding internet company Akamai Technologies . Lewin was born in Denver, Colorado and raised in Jerusalem , where he served for four years in the Israel Defence Forces . He was an officer in Sayeret Matkal , a top-secret counter-terrorism unit. He attended the Technion university in Haifa , Israel while simultaneously working at IBM ‘s research laboratory in Haifa. While at IBM, he was responsible for developing the Genesys system, a processor verification tool that is used widely within IBM and in other companies such as AMD and SGS Thompson. Upon receiving a Bachelor of Arts and a …

2025 (revision 1292615652):

Israeli-American entrepreneur and 9/11 victim Daniel Mark Lewin ( Hebrew : דניאל “דני” מארק לוין ; May 14, 1970 – September 11, 2001) was an American-Israeli mathematician and entrepreneur who co-founded Akamai Technologies . A passenger on board American Airlines Flight 11 , it is believed that Lewin was stabbed to death by Satam al-Suqami , one of the hijackers of that flight, making him the first victim of the September 11 attacks . ^ Leopold, Todd (September 11, 2013). “The legacy of Danny Lewin, the first man to die on 9/11” . CNN . ^ Sisk, Richard; el-Faizy, Monique (July 24, 2004). “Ex-Israeli commando tried to halt unfolding hijacking” . Daily News . New York City. Archived from the …

Section titled “Related”

Wikipedia text is quoted under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is not affiliated with Wikipedia.