Hebrew legal and medical translation are two different lexical worlds united by one thing: in both, Israel stands far from the European model. Israeli law is a mixed system in which the common law of the British Mandate era, the remnants of Ottoman land legislation, the modern laws of the Knesset and Jewish religious law (halakha) operate at the same time; the Georgian Civil Code, by contrast, is built on the German tradition, and the logic of one and the same institution is often completely different in the two systems. Israeli medicine, for its part, is one of the most high-tech in the world, and an Israeli clinical document is such a blend of Hebrew and English that the terms are written in English and the structure and notes in Hebrew. On this page we explain both fields separately.
Legal translation: Israel's mixed law in Georgian
Inheritance: the registrar, the court, the Rabbinate
Israel's Succession Law of 1965 creates a system different from the European one. In the absence of a will the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs (ha-rasham le-inyanei yerusha), a structure of the Ministry of Justice, issues an inheritance order (tzav yerusha), in which the heirs by law and their shares are established; in the case of a will, a probate order (tzav kiyum tzavaa), to which the will is attached; in the case of a dispute the matter passes to the family court (beit mishpat le-inyanei mishpacha), and with the consent of the parties it can also be conducted in a rabbinical court. For a Georgian notary who issues a certificate of inheritance this means that the Israeli document is not a court decision but an administrative order, and an explanation of this is attached to the translation. Israeli terms (yoresh, heir; tzavaa, will; menahel izavon, estate administrator, which in Georgian law comes close to the estate custodian) pass into the equivalents of the Georgian Civil Code with an explanation where the systems differ. For the two-country families of Georgian Jews this is the most frequent legal package.
Contracts in the British tradition
An Israeli contract (choze) rests on the Contracts Law of 1973, but structurally follows the British-American tradition: an extensive definitions clause, detailed liability and indemnity clauses, an "entire agreement" clause, an arbitration clause, which is especially widespread in Israel. The terms (hafara, breach; pitzuim, compensation; bitul, cancellation; eravon, security deposit) pass into the equivalents of the Georgian Civil Code if the translator knows where common law concepts coincide with continental ones and where they do not. Real estate contracts in Israel are a separate genre, because most land belongs to the state and is let on a long lease (chakhira), and registration takes place in the land registry (Tabu, an Ottoman name still in use today); these concepts are foreign to the Georgian property system and need an explanation. Employment contracts contain the specific institutions of Israeli labour legislation (keren hishtalmut, the advanced study fund; pitzuei piturim, severance pay), which have no analogue in Georgian law.
The rabbinical court and family law
In Israel the marriage and divorce of Jews are the exclusive competence of the rabbinical court (beit din rabani), and its documents are written in the terminology of religious law: ketubah (marriage contract), get (divorce act), teudat gerushin (divorce certificate), while property and custody matters are settled by a decision of the family court or the Rabbinate. A Georgian notary or the civil registry, which expects a document confirming an Israeli citizen's divorce, accepts the rabbinical court's certificate if the translation clearly explains that in Israel this is the only competent body and its act is recognised by the state. Dates in Rabbinate documents are often written only by the Hebrew calendar, and we translate them into the Gregorian one while keeping both forms.
Companies and the Registrar of Companies
An Israeli company is usually a limited liability company (chevra ba'am, בע"מ) and is registered with the Registrar of Companies (rasham ha-chavarot), with a nine-digit company number. The registrar's extract (nesach), the articles of association (takanon), the resolutions of the board of directors (direktoryon) and the shareholders' register are translated when a branch is registered in Georgia, real estate is acquired or for a bank. Israel's Companies Law (1999) follows the British model, and the terms (direktor, director; ba'al menayot, shareholder; mankal, general director) must pass exactly into the equivalents of the Georgian Law on Entrepreneurs.
Medical translation: from an Israeli clinic to the Georgian doctor
The medical summary: Hebrew and English in one document
An Israeli medical summary (sikum machala, on discharge from hospital, or sikum bikur, on an outpatient visit) is created in Israel's clinics (Sheba, Ichilov, Hadassah, Assuta, Rambam, Beilinson) in a unified electronic system and is bilingual by nature: diagnoses, procedures, medicines and laboratory parameters are written in English or Latin, the anamnesis, the course of treatment and the recommendations in Hebrew. The translator reads both at once: translates the English terms with Georgian medical terminology, the Hebrew part in full, and expands the Israeli medical abbreviations, which are often a blend of Hebrew and English letters, into their full form. ICD codes are often absent from an Israeli document, and we anchor the diagnosis with the Latin name so that the Georgian doctor identifies it unambiguously. Laboratory units in Israel are often of American practice (mg/dL for glucose and cholesterol), and we mark this in a note without changing the values.
Oncology and tumour boards: a Georgian patient's path
Georgian patients most often go to Israel for oncological, cardiac surgery and neurosurgical treatment, and this process creates three stages of translation. Before treatment the Georgian medical history, histology and immunohistochemistry reports, MRI, CT and PET-CT descriptions and laboratory results are translated into English or Hebrew for the clinic's international department, which draws up a preliminary treatment plan and cost estimate; here the precision of histological terminology directly determines the treatment tactics. During treatment the tumour board minutes, the chemotherapy protocol and the operation record are translated into Georgian for the patient and the Georgian treating doctor. After treatment the Israeli summary and the plan for continuing treatment go into Georgian for the Georgian oncologist, where we reduce the trade names of Israeli medicines to the international non-proprietary name. In urgent cases we deliver a working translation to the doctor within a few hours, and the certified version for insurance or administrative purposes follows later.
Kupat cholim, Bituach Leumi and the Ministry of Health
Israel's healthcare system works through four health funds (kupat cholim: Clalit, Maccabi, Meuhedet, Leumit), which serve every citizen under the National Health Insurance Law, while the National Insurance Institute (Bituach Leumi) settles matters of incapacity for work, disability and pensions. A Georgian Jew living in Israel who was treated in Georgia translates the Georgian medical documents into Hebrew or English for Bituach Leumi in an application for incapacity or disability, or for the kupat cholim to continue treatment. A Georgian doctor or nurse going to work in Israel goes through licensing at the Ministry of Health, for which the diploma, the internship and residency certificates, the specialty certificate and a certificate of work experience are translated into Hebrew or English, with an apostille; for doctors educated abroad the Ministry holds a licensing examination, and knowledge of Hebrew is required for working with patients.
Israeli pharmacy and medical technology
Israel is one of the main producers of pharmaceuticals and medical technology, where Teva is the world's largest generic medicines company, and start-ups in medical devices and diagnostic systems number in the hundreds. The instructions for Israeli medicines (alon la-tzarchan, the patient leaflet, which in Israel is trilingual, Hebrew, Arabic and English), the registration dossier and quality certificates are translated into Georgian for the Georgian market; the technical documentation of a medical device, which is often only in English, is translated for Georgian clinics. The terminology of Israeli medical technology is English-language by nature, and Hebrew text too often uses English terms unchanged, which requires the translator to know both languages at once.
Which documents come in these two fields
Legal: inheritance order and probate order, will, notarial and enduring power of attorney, Registrar of Companies extract and articles of association, contracts (real estate, services, distribution, employment), family court decisions, Rabbinate certificates, Tabu extract, court decisions, criminal record certificate, tax authority certificates.
Medical: medical summary, biopsy and histology reports, tumour board minutes, chemotherapy protocol, operation record, imaging descriptions, laboratory results, kupat cholim records, Bituach Leumi medical committee conclusion, a doctor's diploma and specialty certificate, medicine instructions, medical device documentation.
Real estate: the Tabu and the Public Registry
The acquisition of property in Georgia by Israeli investors and the property of Georgian Jews in Israel create legal translation in both directions. An extract from the Israeli land registry (Tabu) (nesach Tabu) shows the block and parcel number of the property (gush, chelka), the owner, the leasehold right on state land and the encumbrances, and is translated in Georgia in inheritance or divorce cases; the Israeli lease system, where land is often the state's and is let for 49 or 98 years, needs an explanation for a Georgian notary. An extract from the Georgian Public Registry, the sale contract and the cadastral data are translated into Hebrew for an Israeli buyer, while an Israeli notary's power of attorney, with the court's apostille and a Georgian translation, must be worded with specific powers for the Public Registry.
Israel and Georgia: where these two fields meet
Demand for Hebrew legal translation comes from three sources: the inheritance and property cases of the two-country families of Georgian Jews, Israeli investments in Georgian real estate, agriculture and technology, and the marriage of Israeli couples in Georgia, which has become mass in recent years because civil marriage does not exist in Israel. Demand for medical translation comes from the flow of treatment in Israel, the Bituach Leumi and kupat cholim cases of Georgian Jews living in Israel, Georgian medical staff working in Israel and Israeli pharmaceutical exports. In both fields knowledge of Israel's mixed law and bilingual medical documentation determines the quality of the translation.
Notarisation and apostille
Most legal documents require notarisation and need an apostille in both directions: in the Israeli direction from the House of Justice, in the Georgian direction from the right Israeli authority, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on a state document, from the court registrar on a notarial act. Medical conclusions rarely need an apostille; the clinic, the kupat cholim and the insurance company accept a translation certified by a notary or with the agency's seal, Bituach Leumi a notarised one. For licensing at the Ministry of Health a doctor's documents are required with an apostille and a Hebrew or English notarised translation, and we prepare this package as a whole.
Typical mistakes
- Translating tzav yerusha as a "court decision", although it is the registrar's administrative order.
- Translating the Tabu leasehold right as "ownership".
- Leaving the state recognition of a Rabbinate certificate unexplained.
- Translating only the English part of an Israeli medical summary without the Hebrew recommendations.
- Leaving Israeli Hebrew-English medical abbreviations unexpanded.
- "Converting" laboratory units from mg/dL into mmol/L.
- Omitting the Hebrew date in a Rabbinate document.
Tax documents between two jurisdictions
A Georgian Jew living in Israel who has property or a business in Georgia, or an Israeli investor who earns income from a flat in Batumi, faces the question of tax residence in both countries. The certificates of the Israel Tax Authority (rashut ha-misim), the tax residence certificate and the annual return are translated into Georgian for the Revenue Service of Georgia, and Georgian tax certificates into Hebrew for the Israeli authority. A double taxation avoidance agreement is in force between Israel and Georgia, and the terms in the translation must correspond to the official text of this agreement; Israeli tax terminology (mas hachnasa, income tax; mas shevach, the tax on the appreciation of property, which finds no direct analogue in the Georgian system; Bituach Leumi contributions) passes into the equivalents of the Georgian Tax Code with an explanation.
Who works and how
On legal texts we work with translators who, in addition to Hebrew, have a legal education or experience of working with Israeli companies and lawyers; on medical texts with translators who specialise in medical terminology and know Israeli clinical documentation structurally, including those who worked as coordinators of Georgian patients in Israeli clinics. In complex cases a Georgian lawyer or doctor joins as a consultant. Every document goes through an editor; figures from bidirectional text, codes, dates in both calendars and all forms of names are checked separately, and machine translation is not used in these two fields. A confidentiality agreement applies to every order, which is especially important for oncological and inheritance documents.
Deadlines
A one-page certificate or power of attorney is ready in one working day, by express in 1-2 hours. A contract of 10-20 pages requires 2-4 working days, a medical history for an oncological consultation 1-3 days, a doctor's full package for the Ministry of Health with apostilles 3-5 days. In urgent clinical cases, when a patient is waiting for a consultation at an Israeli clinic, we deliver a working translation within a few hours and put it in the priority queue. The order proceeds online, the certified document reaches you by courier or as a PDF, and for a client in Israel by international courier, taking Shabbat and Jewish holidays into account.
Frequently asked questions
Is an Israeli inheritance order enough to obtain a certificate of inheritance from a Georgian notary?
Yes, with the apostille of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a Georgian notarised translation in which it is explained that it is the registrar's administrative order and not a court decision. The heirs' names must match the Georgian documents unambiguously, including the chain of surname changes.
The Israeli medical summary is also in English. Do I need a Georgian translation?
For the Georgian treating doctor yes, because the Hebrew part often contains recommendations for continuing treatment and notes that are not visible in the English terminological part, and for insurance or administrative purposes a notarised translation is required.
For a consultation at an Israeli clinic, should I translate the Georgian history into Hebrew or English?
The clinic's international department accepts English, and this is fast. If you are working directly with a specific specialist or the document will later be needed at the kupat cholim or Bituach Leumi too, we recommend Hebrew. The precision of histological terminology is decisive in both cases.
The Tabu extract says "lease", although the flat is mine. Is that a mistake?
No. In Israel most land belongs to the state and is let on a long lease of 49 or 98 years, which in practice is the equivalent of ownership. In the translation we keep the term and attach an explanation so that the Georgian notary understands the nature of the right correctly.
Is a Rabbinate divorce certificate recognised in Georgia?
Yes, with the apostille of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a Georgian notarised translation in which it is explained that in Israel the divorce of Jews is the exclusive competence of the rabbinical court and its act is recognised by the state. We keep the Hebrew date together with the Gregorian one.
Which documents do I need translated to work as a doctor in Israel?
For licensing at the Ministry of Health the diploma, the internship and residency certificates, the specialty certificate and a certificate of work experience, with an apostille and a Hebrew or English notarised translation. The licensing examination and knowledge of Hebrew are separate requirements.