Yiddish Interpreter

Prism Language Solutions supplies Yiddish interpreters for court hearings, depositions, hospital and clinic appointments and attorney meetings, in person across the New York area and by phone or video anywhere in the United States. The Yiddish spoken in American courtrooms and hospitals today is overwhelmingly Hasidic Yiddish, so we assign a Hasidic speaker by default rather than someone trained only on the academic standard. We also ask about Shabbos and festival dates, and whether a woman interpreter is wanted, before confirming.

Yiddish is one of the few minority languages in the United States whose home use has been growing. About 154,000 people speak it at home on American Community Survey data, the great majority in and around New York, and the growth comes from the Hasidic communities of Brooklyn, Rockland County, Kiryas Joel and Lakewood, New Jersey. Prism’s single office sits in lower Manhattan, close to where most Yiddish interpreting happens.

The people who need a Yiddish interpreter are specific. Older men and women from those communities whose English is limited, and anyone, at any age, giving evidence about community life in a setting where exact words matter. Yiddish interpreting here is a court and hospital matter far more than an immigration one.

• 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

Hasidic Yiddish Interpreter, Not Only Academic Yiddish

So we assign a Hasidic Yiddish speaker unless you ask otherwise, and for a court case or a sensitive medical conversation we try to match the interpreter to the speaker’s own community. For a historical or archival matter, where the Yiddish is pre-war and literary, the reverse applies, and we say which kind of interpreter we are sending.

Yiddish Court Interpreter in New York State and Federal Courts

New York’s state court interpreter examinations cover a fixed list of languages that includes Hebrew and not Yiddish, so a Yiddish court interpreter in New York is taken on credentials and experience rather than an exam. No other state certifies Yiddish either, and the federal courts certify in Spanish only, so in federal court a Yiddish interpreter is professionally qualified or language skilled. We give the court and counsel the interpreter’s background before the date.

Criminal matters, matrimonial cases, landlord and tenant disputes and commercial litigation all produce Yiddish-speaking witnesses. If a case touches a rabbinical ruling, tell us, so the interpreter arrives knowing the Hebrew and Aramaic terms that will come up and renders them with the original term kept audible. We also avoid proposing dates that fall on Shabbos or a yom tov. See court interpreting.

Yiddish Medical Interpreter and Requests for a Woman Interpreter

Any Yiddish-speaking patient at a hospital on federal funds is owed an interpreter at no cost, and it is worth saying plainly because families often assume a bilingual relative is the only option. For an older patient, a relative interpreting a diagnosis may also be managing what the wider family hears, which is a separate problem from accuracy.

Say at booking whether the patient would prefer a woman interpreter; for obstetric and gynecological appointments the answer is often yes, and we plan around it. Video covers a routine consultation. For a diagnosis, a birth or a mental health assessment we look to send a Hasidic-speaking interpreter in person. More on medical interpreting.

Yiddish Recorded Calls: Transcription and Interpreting for Litigation

Recorded jail calls, voicemails and wiretaps in Yiddish reach us from defense attorneys and prosecutors alike. They are hard work. Hasidic speech moves between Yiddish, Hebrew phrases and English inside a single sentence, and a transcriber working from the academic standard marks those switches inaudible or hears a religious term as a name.

We transcribe in the language actually spoken, translate alongside, time-stamp each passage and mark genuine gaps. Where counsel needs to review the recordings with a Yiddish-speaking client, an interpreter can sit in on the review by video. See transcription, and for letters, beth din papers and community documents, Yiddish translation.

Yiddish Interpreting by Phone and Video Outside New York

In Brooklyn, Rockland County and the rest of the New York area an in-person Yiddish interpreter is usually available with a few days’ notice. The communities also reach into New Jersey, upstate New York and beyond, and there video remote interpreting or phone interpreting connects a Hasidic-speaking interpreter the same day. A screen loses a little of the room, and for a long hearing or a difficult conversation we recommend in person where the distance allows.

Yiddish on-site work is quoted within the typical US market range of $45 to $95 an hour with a two-hour minimum. Send the date, setting, community and any Shabbos or festival constraints through the quote form, or ring +1 (833) 282 8883; a written fixed price comes back within 60 minutes in business hours.

Questions we get asked