Gavriel Holtzberg: what Wikipedia removed
Gavriel Holtzberg was the Chabad rabbi murdered with his wife in the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. Through 2010 the opening said the couple ‘were murdered by Pakistani Islamic terrorists in the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai.’ Today the opening calls the killers ‘the Islamic militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba,’ though terror survives nine times elsewhere in the article. A reader today learns the name of the group and not that Wikipedia’s own opening once called its members terrorists.
The word “terror” appeared 1 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2010. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 9. Checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01.
The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot
Section titled “The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot”| word | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 6 October 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| terror | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| militant | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
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 earlier date-of-birth and date-of-death phrasing is gone, replaced by a rewritten introductory clause.
- The description of the killers as Pakistani Islamic terrorists is gone, replaced with the group’s name and the softer word militant.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2010 (revision 367276843):
Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg ( Template:Lang-he , born 1979, died 26 November 2008 ) was an Orthodox rabbi and the Chabad emissary to Mumbai , India , where he and his wife Rivka ran the Mumbai Chabad House . He was also a religious leader and community builder for the local Jewish Indian community, and led the Friday-night Shabbat services at the Knesset Eliyahoo synagogue. Holtzberg and his wife were murdered by Pakistani Islamic terrorists in the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai . ^ “Jerusalem funeral of Mumbai rabbi”, Australian Jewish News, 3 December 2008 ^ Orphan of slain rabbi in Mumbai lands in Israel , Associated Press , Mark Lavie, 1 December 2008 ^ Cite error: The named reference…
2025 (revision 1296579651):
American-Israeli rabbi (1979–2008) Gavriel Noach Holtzberg ( Hebrew : גבריאל נח הולצברג ; June 9, 1979 – November 26, 2008 (1st of Kislev, 5769) was an Israeli American Orthodox rabbi and the Chabad emissary to Mumbai , India, where he and his wife Rivka ran the Mumbai Chabad House . He was also a religious leader and community builder for the local Jewish Indian community, and led the Friday-night Shabbat services at the Knesset Eliyahoo synagogue. Holtzberg and his wife were murdered during the 2008 Mumbai attacks perpetrated by the Islamic militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba . ^ Lavie, Mark (1 December 2008). “Orphan of slain rabbi in Mumbai lands in Israel” . Associated Press . ^ ” “Jerusalem…
Related
Section titled “Related”- The drift report: what changed across all 61,944 watched articles
- The case file for this article, with every snapshot and every marked removal
- Who made the cuts: removals grouped by the account that made them
- The live article on Wikipedia
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