Skip to content
Shoresh Wiki

Joseph Seligman: what Wikipedia removed

Joseph Seligman was the American banker whose 1877 refusal at Saratoga Springs’ Grand Union Hotel became a landmark case. The 2010 opening called it ‘the most publicized antisemitic incident in American history up to that point.’ Today’s opening carries neither the word nor the episode, though antisemitism survives five times in the body. A reader arriving at the opening today does not learn that his hotel refusal was, in Wikipedia’s own words, the most publicized antisemitic incident in American history to that point.

The word “antisemitism” appeared 1 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2010. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 5. 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
antisemitism10000

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 the 1877 Grand Union Hotel refusal as the most publicized antisemitic incident in American history to that point was cut from the opening.

How it opened then, and now

Section titled “How it opened then, and now”

2010 (revision 366304976):

Joseph Seligman Joseph Seligman (1819–1880) was a prominent U.S. banker and businessman. He was born in Baiersdorf , Germany , emigrating to the United States when he was 18. With his brothers, he started a bank, J. & W. Seligman & Co. , with branches in New York , San Francisco , New Orleans , London , Paris and Frankfurt . In the post-Civil War Gilded Age , J. & W. Seligman & Co. invested heavily in railroad finance, in particular acting as broker of transactions engineered by Jay Gould . They underwrote the securities of a variety of companies, participating in stock and bond issues in the railroad and steel and wire industries, investments in Russia and Peru , the formation of the Standa…

2025 (revision 1294887900):

American banker and businessman (1819–1880) Joseph Seligman (November 22, 1819 – April 25, 1880) was an American banker and businessman who founded J. & W. Seligman & Co. He was the patriarch of what became known as the Seligman family in the United States and related to the wealthy Guggenheim family through Peggy Guggenheim’s mother Florette. ^ Birmingham, Stephen (1967). Our Crowd: The Great Jewish Families of New York . Syracuse University Press . ISBN 978-0815604112 .

Section titled “Related”

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