All Languages of the Jewish World

Kol Tirgum Translators is an Israel-based translation agency, situated in the orthodox city of Bnei Brak, a suburb of Tel Aviv.

The agency is run by Mrs. Yael Rinkoff M.A., a recognized translator by the Israeli Translators Association, with 30 years of translation experience.

 
We specialize in serving the orthodox Jewish community both in Israel and overseas. Among our clients are Yeshivot, Jewish organizations such as Chabad-Lubavitch institutes, Rabbinical institutes, lawyers, Jewish leaders and private customers.

In addition we deal with many other fields of translation such as legal, technical, medical, scientific, marketing, financial and more.

 
We provide translation services from 50 languages into Hebrew or English and vice versa. 

Kol Tirgum Translators specializes in Yiddish translations, as the language spoken and used mainly by the orthodox communities but not only. Yiddish is the international language of Jewish people all over the world.

We employ dozens of experienced translators in various languages as their mother tongue to provide you with professional service in every language pair.

 

For quick, reliable and professional service – please don't hesitate to contact us: 

+972-3-5702313, kol-tirgum@013.net.il

 

Yiddish Translations Today

In recent years there has been a great revival of demand for Yiddish writings, Yiddish speaking, and therefore the need has arisen for translations from and into Yiddish. In the United States, especially among emergency organizations, it became clear that important material must reach also those to whom English is not so familiar but speak, read and understand the Yiddish language. Documents include discussions about circumcision, instructions in cases of emergency, health issues and more.

In Israel, immigrants from all over the world have kept ancient letters and documents, written by their deceased relatives, which they would like to understand and sometimes advertise as books or memories for their children, so they ask to translate them to Hebrew or English. Others have voice recordings in Yiddish, whether monologues of relatives, or lectures spoken by rabbis, or conversations between two or more people which require transcription or translation for legal purposes.

"Kol Tirgum Translators" is a Jewish orthodox translation agency, operating in Bnei Brak, Israel, and serves both secular and religious communities. Translation agencies in America use our services on a constant basis for the benefit of the Jewish community there.

We shall be happy to provide you with our professional translation services from Yiddish to English, from English to Yiddish, from Yiddish to Hebrew, from Hebrew to Yiddish, and any Yiddish translation that you require.

About the Yiddish Language

Yiddish (literally "Jewish") is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken in many parts of the world. It developed as a fusion of different German dialects, including Hebrew, Aramaic and Slavic vocabulary and some traces of vocabulary from the Roman languages. Yiddish orthography uses the Hebrew alphabet.

The language originated in the Ashkenazi culture that developed from about the 10th century in the Rhineland and then spread to Central and Eastern Europe, and eventually to other continents. In common usage, the language is called מאַמע־לשון (mame-loshn, literally "mother tongue"), distinguishing it from Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic, which are collectively termed לשון־קודש (loshn-hakoydesh, "the holy language"). The term "Yiddish" did not become the most frequently used designation in the literature of the language until the 18th century.

For a significant portion of its history, Yiddish was the primary spoken language of the Ashkenazi Jews and once spanned a broad dialect continuum from Western Yiddish to three major groups within Eastern Yiddish: Litvish, Polish and Ukrainish. Eastern and Western Yiddish are most markedly distinguished by the extensive inclusion of words of Slavic origin in the former. Western Yiddish has few remaining speakers but the Eastern dialects remain in wide use.

Yiddish is written and spoken in many Orthodox Jewish communities around the world, although there are also a number of Orthodox Jews who do not know Yiddish. It is a home language in most Hasidic communities, where it is the first language learned in childhood, used in schools and in many social settings. Yiddish is also the academic language of the study of the Talmud according to the tradition of the Lithuanian yeshivas.

Yiddish is also used in the adjectival sense to designate attributes of Ashkenazic Jewish culture (for example, Yiddish cooking and Yiddish music).

In the early 20th century, especially after Socialist October Revolution in Russia, Yiddish was emerging as a major Eastern European language. Its rich literature was more widely published than ever, Yiddish theatre and Yiddish film were booming, and  for a time it achieved status as one of the official languages of the Ukrainian People's Republic, the Belarusian and the short-lived Galician SSR, and the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. Educational autonomy for Jews in several countries (notably Poland) after World War I led to an increase in formal Yiddish-language education, more uniform orthography, and to the 1925 founding of the Yiddish Scientific Institute, YIVO. Yiddish emerged as the national language of a large Jewish community in Eastern Europe that rejected Zionism and sought Jewish cultural autonomy in Europe. It also contended with Modern Hebrew as a literary language among Zionists. In Vilna there was intense debate over which language should take primacy, Hebrew or Yiddish.

Yiddish changed significantly during the 20th century. Michael Wex writes, "As increasing numbers of Yiddish speakers moved from the Slavic-speaking East to Western Europe and the Americas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they were so quick to jettison Slavic vocabulary that the most prominent Yiddish writers of the time—the founders of modern Yiddish literature, who were still living in Slavic-speaking countries—revised the printed editions of their oeuvres to eliminate obsolete and 'unnecessary' Slavism." The vocabulary used in Israel absorbed many Modern Hebrew words, and there was a similar increase in the English component of Yiddish in the United States and, to a lesser extent, the United Kingdom. This has resulted in some difficulty in communication between Yiddish speakers from Israel and those from other countries. 

Yiddish Translations – We take care of all your special requirements professionally and quickly. Call us on: +972-3-5702313 or write to us:  kol-tirgum@013.net.il

 

Translation from and into Hebrew

In a country like Israel, where immigrants from all over the world are coming both to visit and to reside in the holy land, translation has become very much in demand, since first of all they have to understand the Israeli culture and secondly they ever so often need to translate their documents which they have brought with them in order to provide them to Israeli institutes.

On the other hand, many Israelis have either businesses that deal with overseas companies, or study abroad, and therefore need to translate relevant documents, such as certificates, diplomas, contracts, trading documents, and many more materials. In view of this flourishing globalization, translation has become a necessity for almost everyone. 

"Kol Tirgum Translators" is an Israeli-based professional translation agency, dealing with translation from and into 50 languages, when Hebrew and English being the most requested target languages in the country. Although Hebrew-English translations are the most popular ones but other languages, such as German, French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian and Russian are also in great demand.

In addition to translation into and from modern Hebrew, literary or business Hebrew, we translate also ancient Talmudic Hebrew handwriting, such as in a Ketubah (Jewish marriage contract) from various countries, Aramaic, and holy Biblical language.

The Hebrew Language

The modern word "Hebrew" is derived from the word "Ibri" (plural "Ibrim") one of several names for the Jewish people. It is traditionally understood to be an adjective based on the name of Abraham's supposed ancestor, Eber ("Ebr" עבר in Hebrew) mentioned in Genesis 10:21. In the Bible, the Hebrew language is called Y?hudit (יהודית) because Judah (Y?huda) was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation, late 8th century BCE (Is 36, 2 Kings 18). In Isaiah 19:18, it is also called the "Language of Canaan" (שְׂפַת כְּנַעַן).

 

Classical Hebrew. In its widest sense, Classical Hebrew means the spoken language of ancient Israel flourishing between the 10th century BCE and the turn of the 4th century CE. It comprises several evolving and overlapping dialects. The phases of Classical Hebrew are often named after important literary works associated with them.

Archaic Biblical Hebrew, from the 10th to the 6th century BCE, corresponding to the Monarchic Period until the Babylonian Exile and represented by certain texts in the Hebrew Bible (Tanach), notably the Song of Moses (Exodus 15) and the Song of Deborah (Judges 5). 

Standard Biblical Hebrew, around the 8th to 6th centuries BCE, corresponding to the late Monarchic period and the Babylonian Exile. It is represented by the bulk of the Hebrew Bible that attains much of its present form around this time. Also called Biblical Hebrew, Early Biblical Hebrew, Classical Biblical Hebrew (or Classical Hebrew in the narrowest sense).

Late Biblical Hebrew, from the 5th to the 3rd centuries BCE, that corresponds to the Persian Period and is represented by certain texts in the Hebrew Bible, notably the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Basically similar to Classical Biblical Hebrew, apart from a few foreign words adopted for mainly governmental terms, and some syntactical innovations such as the use of the particle shel (of, belonging to). It adopted the Imperial Aramaic script (from which the modern Hebrew script descends).

Israelian Hebrew, is a proposed northern dialect of biblical Hebrew, attested in all eras of the language, in some cases competing with late biblical Hebrew as an explanation for non-standard linguistic features of biblical texts.

Dead Sea Scroll Hebrew, from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE, corresponding to the Hellenistic and Roman Periods before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and represented by the Qumran Scrolls that form most (but not all) of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Commonly abbreviated as DSS Hebrew, also called Qumran Hebrew. The Imperial Aramaic script of the earlier scrolls in the 3rd century BCE evolved into the Hebrew square script of the later scrolls in the 1st century CE, also known as ketav Ashuri (Assyrian script), still in use today.

Mishnaic Hebrew, from the 1st to the 3rd or 4th century CE, corresponding to the Roman Period after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and represented by the bulk of the Mishnah and Tosefta within the Talmud and by the Dead Sea Scrolls, notably the Bar Kokhba Letters and the Copper Scroll. Also called Tannaitic Hebrew or Early Rabbinic Hebrew.

Modern Hebrew. Standard Hebrew, as developed by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, was based on Mishnaic spelling and Sephardi Hebrew pronunciation. However, the earliest speakers of Modern Hebrew had Yiddish as their native language, and often brought into Hebrew idioms and literal translations from Yiddish. The pronunciation of modern Israeli Hebrew is based mostly on the Sephardic Hebrew pronunciation. However, the language has adapted to Ashkenazi Hebrew phonology in some respects. Modern Hebrew is the primary official language of the State of Israel.
Hebrew Translations – We take care of all your special requirements professionally and quickly. Call us on: +972-3-5702313 or write to us: kol-tirgum@013.net.il