🌐 Yiddish Interpreter - Translation of Letters, Archives and Family Documents

A Yiddish interpreter is most often needed when a text turns up in a family album, an old box or among a grandmother's belongings that is written in Hebrew letters, yet even someone who knows modern Hebrew cannot read it. For centuries Yiddish was the everyday language of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, so the material written in it today mostly has historical, family and archival value.

As a rule, people come to us for one of three reasons: a family wants to understand the history of its ancestors, a researcher is looking for the content of a source kept in an archive, or a historical paper has to be submitted to an authority. In all three cases we involve a Yiddish specialist, and we read the text taking into account the spelling, handwriting and vocabulary of the period and region it comes from.

Yiddish translation services

The main direction is translation from Yiddish into Georgian: private correspondence, memoirs, family chronicles, minutes of community organizations, newspaper articles and literary excerpts. Where needed, we also consider the opposite direction, for example preparing a short Georgian text in Yiddish for a commemorative publication or for relatives living abroad. If you need the final version in another language, we agree on this before the order starts.

Yiddish and Ivrit - why they are two different languages

Many people think that any text written in Hebrew letters is in Hebrew. In fact, the basis of Yiddish (ייִדיש) is Germanic: its grammar and core vocabulary go back to medieval German dialects, to which words of Hebrew and Aramaic origin were added, as well as Slavic elements acquired in Eastern Europe. Modern Hebrew, or Ivrit, is a Semitic language and the state language of Israel. For information about services for that language, see the page Hebrew (Ivrit) interpreter.

A visible difference lies in the vowels. In ordinary Ivrit texts the vowels are often not written, while in Yiddish vowel sounds are rendered by separate letters: alef, vov, yud, ayin and their combinations. Because of this, a Yiddish word often looks long, and a person who knows German may even recognize some words once the letters are deciphered. Both languages may appear on the same sheet: the main text of a letter in Yiddish, and the greeting, a prayer formula or the date in Hebrew.

The language of the Ashkenazi Jews: a short historical background

Yiddish took shape in the Middle Ages on the lands of the Holy Roman Empire and then spread east with the Ashkenazi Jews, to the territories of Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Hungary and Romania. Before the Second World War, by various estimates, up to 11-13 million people spoke Yiddish. Letters were written in it, newspapers and books were printed, plays were staged and scholarly research was carried out.

The Holocaust destroyed most of the Yiddish-speaking communities, and post-war emigration and assimilation reduced the everyday use of the language even further. Today Yiddish remains a living language mainly in some Orthodox communities, above all in the United States and Israel, and also in literature and academic research. That is exactly why demand for translation is mostly connected with the past: families look for information about their ancestors, and researchers for primary sources.

Alphabet, vowels and the direction of writing

Yiddish is written from right to left, although some letters have a different function in it than in Hebrew. The double yud (ײ) and the double vov (װ) are used as separate signs, while the alef is sometimes silent and sometimes, with the help of a mark beneath it, stands for the sound "a" or "o". In old printed texts and manuscripts these diacritical marks are often not written at all, which makes recognizing a word depend on the context.

In the Georgian translation the direction of writing changes, but the structure of the original must remain recognizable: where a new paragraph begins, where there is a note in the margin, which line was added later in a different ink. We indicate such details with a short note in square brackets, so that the reader knows exactly what belongs to the author and what is the translator's explanation.

Standard, old and Soviet spelling

For a long time Yiddish had no unified spelling. YIVO, the research institute founded in Vilno in 1925 and operating in New York since 1940, drew up spelling rules in the 1930s that are still considered the most widely known standard today. In this system, words of Hebrew and Aramaic origin are written in their traditional, consonant-based form, and the rest of the vocabulary phonetically. Before that, the so-called "Daytshmerish" was widespread - a style created in imitation of German, with silent letters and German words.

In the Soviet Union, from 1920, words of Hebrew origin also began to be written phonetically, and later the separate word-final letter forms were also abolished in printed publications. As a result, one and the same word may look completely different in a Soviet newspaper and in a pre-war Warsaw publication. For the translator this is a useful clue: the spelling often helps us establish where and roughly when a text was written.

Handwritten letters and Hebrew cursive

Family correspondence is mostly written in Hebrew cursive, that is, in handwritten script. In this script the shapes of the letters differ sharply from print, some letters merge with the neighbouring one, and every author has their own manner. To save paper, letters were often written densely, in the margins and sometimes even across the sheet. Many authors had no formal education and wrote words the way they pronounced them.

We work on such material step by step: first we establish the particular author's letter shapes from the words that can be read unambiguously, and then we use this "key" to read the unclear passages. A dialect word, a local expression or a Slavic loanword often also points to the author's origin. Faded ink, a torn edge or a line worn away along a fold is marked separately in the translation.

What material is translated from Yiddish

Demand for Yiddish translation rarely concerns a modern state document. Usually it is material of private or community origin that preserves the history of a family, a settlement or an individual. The table shows which language a given document may be written in and what we pay attention to when translating it.

Family letters, postcards and envelopes

Waves of emigration scattered families across different continents, so many families have kept letters sent from America, Palestine or European cities. They may contain news of relatives' births, weddings, deaths, moves to a new home or hardships endured during the war. Often it is precisely such a letter that is the only source in which an ancestor's full name or native small town appears.

That is why the envelope and the address side of a postcard are no less valuable than the text itself. The postmark, the stamp, the sender's address and a censorship mark help us establish the date and the route. Such entries are often in the state language, so where needed we combine the work of a Russian interpreter, a Polish interpreter or a German interpreter in one case and write the names the same way everywhere.

Memoirs, diaries and testimonies from the Holocaust period

After the war, survivors wrote down many memoirs in Yiddish: some were published as separate books, some remained in the family as manuscripts, and some ended up in archival collections. Memorial books of whole communities (Yizkor books) were also published, mainly in Yiddish and Hebrew, describing the life and destruction of a particular city or small town. Translating such a text requires not only knowledge of the language, but also historical accuracy and respect for the author's voice.

In testimonies we keep the author's narrative style, repetitions and emotional tone; we do not embellish or shorten the text. We compare the names of camps, ghettos and institutions with the forms accepted in the historical literature, and we leave an unclear place name together with the original spelling. Work on the material is confidential, and the family's history is not passed on to third parties.

Community records, metrical books and old certificates

Jewish communities kept their own records: books of the burial society, minutes of mutual aid organizations, lists of synagogue members and records of charity. Such books are often in a mixed language: headings and formulas in Hebrew, current entries in Yiddish. In the Russian Empire, the metrical books of Jewish births, marriages and deaths were bilingual in some periods and regions, in the state language and in Hebrew.

When translating an old certificate or extract, we keep the layout of the columns, the record number and the content of every field. If one and the same fact is stated in two languages and the entries do not match - for example, a name or a date is recorded differently - we show both versions and point out the discrepancy in a note. Choosing the correct version is not the translator's job: that is decided by the researcher or the receiving authority.

Ketubah and gravestones: when the text is not in Yiddish

The ketubah, the Jewish marriage contract, is traditionally written in Aramaic, with individual Hebrew phrases; in modern ketubot Hebrew or bilingual text is also found. Yiddish, if it appears in such a document at all, is usually only in individual details added by hand. Accordingly, translating a ketubah requires knowledge of Aramaic and Hebrew legal formulas, and we take this into account when accepting the order.

Gravestone inscriptions, in Ashkenazi cemeteries too, are mainly in Hebrew. They contain standard abbreviations, for example פ״נ ("here lies") and the prayer formula תנצב״ה placed at the end, as well as the name of the deceased together with the father's name and the date in the Hebrew calendar, where numbers are expressed by letters. A stone may also carry text in Yiddish or in the state language. Send us photos taken from several angles, because worn letters show up better in slanting light.

Newspapers, literature and printed publications

A rich press and literature were created in Yiddish: daily newspapers, magazines, poetry, prose, theatre plays and scholarly works. A family archive may have kept a newspaper clipping with an obituary, an announcement searching for a lost relative or an article in which an ancestor is mentioned. In such a case we translate both the text itself and the details of the publication: its name, issue number and date, if they are visible on the clipping.

A literary or scholarly translation needs a different approach from a family letter. Here style, rhythm, humour and allusions coming from the Jewish tradition matter. Before such a project starts, we agree on the target reader, the need for footnotes and a single rule for transliterating terms, so that the whole text comes out consistent.

Genealogy and archives

One of the most common purposes of a Yiddish translation is genealogical research. Families and researchers often use public sources such as the Central Database of Yad Vashem, which holds the names of Holocaust victims and the so-called Pages of Testimony; the Arolsen Archives, the former International Tracing Service in Germany, a large part of whose documents is available online; and also the YIVO archive in New York. Copies obtained from these sources may be in Yiddish, Hebrew, German, Polish or Russian.

TARGMANEBI does not cooperate with these institutions and does not send requests on their behalf. Our task is the accurate translation of material that you have obtained or that has been kept in the family. If you have documents in several languages in one research project, we prepare the translations with a uniform spelling of names, so that one person does not appear to you as different people on different sheets.

Restoration of citizenship and official applications

Some countries have rules on restoring the citizenship of persons persecuted during the Nazi period and of their descendants. In Germany, for example, this matter is governed by Article 116, paragraph 2 of the Basic Law, and the cases of applicants living abroad are handled by the Federal Office of Administration (Bundesverwaltungsamt). Procedures for restoring or confirming citizenship also exist in other countries, for example in Austria and Poland, although the conditions and requirements differ.

In such cases, historical documents may be needed to prove descent and family relationship, including letters or community records written in Yiddish. Which language the translation has to be in, whether it needs certification and in what form, is determined by the receiving authority, so read its current instructions or your lawyer's guidance in advance. We do not give legal advice on the content of the application; we prepare an accurate translation and agree on the target language and form before the order.

Ashkenazi Jews in Georgia and the language of Georgian Jews

Georgia's Jewish population had two main parts. Georgian Jews spoke Georgian for centuries; their speech is sometimes called Judaeo-Georgian or Kivruli, a variety of Georgian with Hebrew and Aramaic loanwords. Yiddish was not traditionally used in this community, so a text written in Yiddish is rare in the family archive of Georgian Jews.

The situation was different with the Ashkenazi Jews, who settled in Tbilisi and other cities from the 19th century, after Georgia was annexed to the Russian Empire. They brought Yiddish with them: at the beginning of the 20th century Tbilisi even had a Yiddish theatre and cultural life, and an Ashkenazi Jewish cemetery survives in Navtlughi to this day. If your ancestors came from an Ashkenazi family, their correspondence and records may well be in Yiddish.

Names, settlements and dates

In a Yiddish text one person may have several names: a Hebrew religious name, an everyday or diminutive Yiddish form and a Russian, Polish or German variant recorded in civil documents. In Hebrew formulas the father's name is linked to the person's name with a word meaning "son of" or "daughter of". In the translation we render the name according to the original, and if we have a form confirmed in another document, we give it in brackets.

Settlements often have their own name in Yiddish: for example, Vilnius is called Vilne in Yiddish. Many town names changed several times along with shifting borders, so we give a place name both in its present-day form and as written in the original; for identifying places on the territory of Ukraine, our Ukrainian interpreter service also helps. A date may be given in the Hebrew calendar, and in documents of the Russian Empire from before 1918 in the Old Style; we leave the original unchanged and give the Gregorian equivalent in a note.

Notarized translation and apostille

If a document translated from Yiddish has to be used officially in Georgia, a notarized translation may be needed. In Georgia the notary certifies the translator's signature; the notary does not check the authenticity of the historical document or the content of the translation. This is especially important for private letters, which have neither an issuing authority nor an official seal.

An apostille is attached, under the 1961 Hague Convention, to a public document - for example, an archival certificate issued today or an officially certified copy. Georgia has been a party to the Convention since 14 May 2007; Germany, Austria, Poland, Israel and the United States are also parties. A private letter is not a public document, so as a rule an apostille does not apply to it. Which step is needed and in what order is decided by the receiving authority.

How to order a Yiddish translation

Send us a complete scan or sharp photos of the material: every page, both sides of each sheet, envelopes, the address side of postcards and notes on the back of photographs. When scanning, high resolution and natural colour are preferable, because black-and-white mode often wipes out faded ink completely. In your message, briefly write what you need the translation for and what the family already knows: names, towns, approximate years.

What helps us start quickly

If there is a lot of material, number the files in the order of the sheets and send all the pages of one letter together. A short family tree or a list of known relatives helps the specialist recognize names correctly, especially when a letter mentions only diminutive forms.

Turnaround, the Tbilisi office and remote ordering

A short, easily legible text, such as a one-page printed record, is usually ready the same or the next day, although this is not a guarantee. Long handwritten letters, diaries and multi-page memoirs need step-by-step work; we will tell you the completion date for them after looking through the material. A large collection can be handed over to you part by part, so that you see the first results soon.

You can show the originals and collect the translation at the office: 118 Davit Aghmashenebeli Avenue, Tbilisi. Carrying old, fragile sheets around is not advisable, so in most cases an electronic copy is entirely sufficient and the original stays with you. You can order remotely from any city in Georgia or from abroad. For the list of other languages, see the page Interpreter services.

Quality control: an illegible passage is not guessed

In a historical text the biggest risk is a word filled in by guesswork. That is why we mark a passage that cannot be read like this in the translation: [illegible] or [sheet damaged], and we give a partially recognized word with a question mark. After the translation is finished, we compare every name, number, date and place name with the original once more.

Where needed, we add short explanations to the translation: what a religious formula means, which holiday a date refers to or which historical event is alluded to. An explanation is always set apart from the author's text and marked as a translator's note. Family material is used only for the translation.

Frequently asked questions about Yiddish translation