Skip to content
Shoresh Wiki

Jewish American literature: what Wikipedia removed

This article surveys Jewish American literature and the themes it addresses. In 2010 the opening said modern Jewish American novels “address issues and themes of importance to Jewish American society such as assimilation, Zionism/Israel, and Anti-Semitism, along with the recent phenomenon known as ‘New Anti-Semitism.’” Today’s opening describes the literature’s place in U.S. literary history without naming antisemitism as a theme; antisemitism survives 6 times elsewhere in the article. A reader today does not learn, from the opening, that antisemitism and “New Anti-Semitism” are named themes of Jewish American literature.

The word “antisemitism” appeared 2 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2010. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 6. Checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01.

The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot

Section titled “The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot”
word2010201520206 October 20232025
antisemitism20000

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 sentence naming antisemitism and ‘New Anti-Semitism’ as themes of Jewish American literature, dropped from the opening.

How it opened then, and now

Section titled “How it opened then, and now”

2010 (revision 362876584):

Jewish American literature holds an essential place in the literary history of the United States . It encompasses traditions of writing in English , primarily, as well as in other languages, the most important of which has been Yiddish . While critics and authors generally acknowledge the notion of a distinctive corpus and practice of writing about Jewishness in America , many writers resist being pigeonholed as ‘Jewish voices’. Also, many nominally Jewish writers cannot be considered representative of Jewish American literature, one example is Isaac Asimov. Beginning with the memoirs and petitions composed by the Sephardic immigrants who arrived in America during the mid 17th century, Jewis…

2025 (revision 1291551142):

Jewish American literature holds an essential place in the literary history of the United States . It encompasses traditions of writing in English , primarily, as well as in other languages, the most important of which has been Yiddish . While critics and authors generally acknowledge the notion of a distinctive corpus and practice of writing about Jewishness in America , many writers resist being pigeonholed as “Jewish voices.” Also, many nominally Jewish writers cannot be considered representative of Jewish American literature, one example being Isaac Asimov . Modernism and speculative fiction are major focuses in post-Holocaust Jewish American literature.

Section titled “Related”

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