Hebrew to English Translation

This direction is used when a Hebrew document has to be submitted to an English-speaking country. The typical applicant is someone applying with documents issued in Israel to a university, an employer or an immigration authority in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada or Australia. The document is written in the Hebrew alphabet and runs from right to left, while the authority that will read it assesses it according to the Latin-script, left-to-right Anglo-Saxon order.

Concrete examples make the direction clear: the researcher applying for a master’s programme in the United States with an Israeli university diploma, the couple married in Israel presenting their documents in England, the family attaching Israeli civil registry records to a Canadian immigration file. What they have in common is that the document is meaningful within the Israeli system but cannot be read directly by the receiving side because of its alphabet and its direction of writing.

Academic and civil registry documents are the backbone of demand; the international mobility of Israeli higher education keeps diploma and transcript translation in constant demand in this direction. The second group consists of marriage, birth and civil registry records, and the third of commercial documents.

The common difficulty with these documents is that Israeli administrative reality, its calendar and its writing system are not directly recognisable to an English-speaking authority; beyond the conversion of alphabet and calendar, the translation connects two administrative cultures.

The Israeli school-leaving certificate (bagrut) is a detailed table of subject-by-subject marks; the structure of this table is preserved in the English translation, because a recognition assessment looks at the individual subject results. The scale on which the marks are given is explained, since otherwise the institution reading in English will place the results wrongly.

University documents use Israel’s own particular grading scale; this scale is not converted into the English letter system but left as it stands and explained. Nor are degree titles forced into an equivalence with an Anglo-Saxon degree.

Language course (ulpan) and professional certificates are often added to immigration and job applications; in these documents the name of the institution and the dates are transferred accurately. Military service records are also requested from time to time and are translated with their official wording.

In all these documents the transliteration of the name is kept to a single form; the differences in reading that can arise from unvocalised Hebrew spelling are resolved by fixing the Latin form used in the passport.

Technical matters specific to Hebrew into English

The first problem in this pair is the change of alphabet and the direction of writing: Hebrew is written from right to left and the vowels are usually not written; personal and place names are matched in transliteration to the Latin spelling in the passport. Because unvocalised spelling allows more than one reading of the same name, a single form is maintained throughout the file.

The second particular matter is the calendar: Israeli documents may carry dates from the Hebrew (Jewish) calendar, and when these are carried into English they are converted accurately to their Gregorian equivalents. Because of the direction of the text, the page layout and the tables are rebuilt.

The names of institutions and documents are rendered according to their function; registration numbers are not translated but given with a reference to the record concerned. The English rendering of Hebrew administrative terms is built around the institutional function the target authority will understand.

The official seal and registration details on the document are preserved in their position. Giving the name in a single Latin spelling across documents belonging to the same person is what allows the English-speaking authority to match them.

On Israeli civil registry and identity documents the personal number (identity number) is not a date of birth; the translation states this distinction and carries the number across as it stands. In military and public service documents the dates and the issuing authority are given in full.

In marriage documents the distinction between religious and civil registration is shown clearly in the translation; since a marriage in Israel may be registered by different religious authorities, which authority the document rests on matters to the English-speaking authority. This information is preserved in the translation.

In diplomas and transcripts the course titles, credits and marks are transferred in detail; the grading system is not equated with an English counterpart but explained. Where Hebrew and English wording appear together on the same document, consistency is maintained.

Which documents call for this direction

• Diplomas, academic transcripts and degree certificates
• Birth, marriage and civil registry records
• Employment, service and criminal record documents
• Court and notarial documents
• Military and public service documents

Academic applications and immigration files are the backbone of demand. Maintaining consistency of calendar and transliteration across the whole file is what allows the English-speaking authority to read the documents without contradiction.

In marriage and civil registry documents the authority the record rests on and the date are given clearly. In commercial documents the company name and registry details are transferred in their original form.

The chain of certification

Because the target is an English-speaking country, the sworn translator system does not come into play: the United States and the United Kingdom ask for a signed statement of accuracy, Canada for a translator registered with a provincial association or an affidavit, and Australia for NAATI accreditation. The document coming from Israel is expected to carry an apostille.

For these differing expectations, see the certification regime of the target country and the requirements for the document type. Tell us the spelling of the name in the passport and the target institution before you send the document.

Upload your document to see the page count and the current fee, and compare unit prices.

The figures here are for a typical file; the page count and the difficulty of the subject matter may affect the result. Ask the competent authority for confirmation before you apply.