Hebrew Translation Services

Prism Language Solutions translates Hebrew documents into English and English documents into Hebrew for immigration filings, US courts, universities and companies working with Israel. Most certified work is Ministry of Interior records, rabbinical court documents and academic credentials, delivered with a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy. Single certificates normally go out inside 24 hours.

Last reviewed September 11, 2026 by Sarah J, Prism Language Solutions

Hebrew files are usually small and unusually fussy. The person arranging the job often reads English perfectly well and wants a translation a US agency, court or registrar will accept without a second look. Three things decide that: how the name is spelled, how the layout survives the move from right to left, and whether the document came from the state or from a religious court.

• Certified translations prepared to meet USCIS requirements
• Human linguists only, matched to the subject
• Fixed written quote within 60 minutes in business hours
• One office in New York, linguists in every state

Certified Hebrew Translation of Israeli Ministry of Interior Records

Israeli civil records come from the Population and Immigration Authority inside the Ministry of Interior. The trap is the identity card. The teudat zehut is issued with a folded paper appendix, and the appendix is where the spouse, the children and the personal status sit. Clients photograph the card, we translate the card, and then the attorney asks where the children are.

Certificates printed in recent years carry some English alongside the Hebrew. That printed English is not a certified translation and it does not cover the seals, the handwritten annotations or the reverse. Older certificates are Hebrew only. What goes into the signed certificate is set out under certified translation, and the form-by-form list under USCIS translation.

• Birth certificate translation and population registry extracts
• Marriage certificates registered with the Ministry of Interior
• Passports and teudat zehut cards with the appendix
• Police and death certificates

Right-to-Left Layout in Hebrew Document Translation

Hebrew runs right to left and so does everything built on it. Tables read from the right-hand column, forms are numbered from the right, a bound file opens from what an English reader thinks of as the back. Software does not always cope. Paste a Hebrew table into an English document and the columns can flip while the values stay put, producing a translation where every figure sits under the wrong heading and nothing looks wrong at a glance.

We rebuild the layout deliberately rather than letting the word processor decide, keep each value with its label, and describe where every seal and signature sits. On a bilingual certificate we check the Hebrew against the printed English instead of trusting it, because the two do not always agree.

Hebrew Date Conversion on Israeli Certificates

Israeli civil documents generally print the Hebrew and Gregorian dates together, and rabbinical documents often print the Hebrew date alone. The Hebrew year is written in letters rather than digits, the calendar is lunisolar so the months do not line up, and the day starts at sunset, which means one Hebrew date can correspond to either of two Gregorian dates.

We translate the date as written, give the Gregorian equivalent in brackets, and say where the sunset rule leaves a one-day ambiguity. Quietly substituting a converted date is the version that gets challenged later, because a reviewer can see that the translation and the original do not say the same thing.

Hebrew Ketubah and Get Translation from the Rabbinical Court

Jewish marriage and divorce in Israel run through the rabbinical courts, not the civil registry. A ketubah is the marriage contract signed before witnesses under the canopy, usually written in Aramaic rather than Hebrew, often in calligraphy, and built from a fixed formula with sums that are traditional rather than literal. It is evidence of the ceremony. It is not the marriage certificate, which is issued once the marriage is registered with the Ministry of Interior.

Divorce works the same way. The religious act is the get, delivered and accepted before a beit din, and the document a US agency wants is the divorce certificate the rabbinical court issues afterwards, sometimes with the judgment behind it. Certified translations come up for a remarriage here, for proving a prior marriage has ended on an immigration filing, and in estate disputes. We translate the Aramaic formula rather than summarizing it, and add a note explaining what the instrument is. See marriage certificate translation and divorce decree translation.

Hebrew Apostille and Notarized Translation for Israeli Documents

Israel has been a party to the Apostille Convention since 1978, and it splits the work between two authorities. Public documents issued by state bodies, birth and marriage certificates and Ministry of Education certificates among them, are apostilled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Powers of attorney, wills, agreements and notarized translations are apostilled by a Magistrate’s Court, confirming that the notary who signed was entitled to.

Two consequences are worth knowing before you spend money. Sending a notarized translation to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs gets it turned away. And an American agency cannot produce an Israeli notarial certification: where an Israeli court wants a notarized Hebrew translation, that step happens in Israel. We say so rather than taking the order. See apostille translation and notarized translation.

Hebrew Diploma, Bagrut and Business Document Translation

Academic files arrive for a credential evaluation or a US graduate application. The teudat bagrut, the matriculation certificate, is the one an evaluator reads closely, because subjects are examined at levels measured in study units, normally three to five, and a grade means something different at three units than at five. Marks run on a hundred-point scale with 56 as the pass. We print the unit count against every subject and leave the equivalence to the evaluator. See diploma translation and academic transcript translation.

Commercial work is the other half of the Hebrew volume, mostly for companies with an Israeli subsidiary or supplier: registry extracts, employment agreements, financial statements and litigation material. More on the business translation and legal translation pages.

Hebrew Translation Cost and Turnaround

Short certificates are priced from about $24.95 a page as a US market guide, running text from roughly $0.14 per source word, a little above the largest European languages because the translator pool is smaller. A single certificate goes out inside 24 hours. Calligraphic material, a ketubah in particular, is quoted from the image rather than by page. Figures are on the pricing page.

Questions we get asked