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Yiddish Interpreters

Professional Yiddish interpreting, virtual or in person, for the settings where getting it wrong has consequences — asylum interviews, hearings, attorney meetings, medical appointments and school meetings.

In New York the Yiddish you need is Hasidic Yiddish, and Standard Yiddish can backfire

Will any Yiddish interpreter do for a Hasidic client? Not necessarily: most Yiddish speakers in the New York area today are Hasidic and speak a largely unified Hasidic variety, which differs in spelling, grammar and vocabulary from the Standard Yiddish taught at universities. The Census Bureau’s 2009–2013 tables counted 155,582 Yiddish speakers in the United States, 131,531 of them — about 85% — in the New York metropolitan area, and 53,116 nationally who spoke English less than “very well”.

The difference is not cosmetic. Linguists at University College London who translated public health guidance for Hasidic readers note that most professional Yiddish translators work outside Hasidic communities in Standard Yiddish, which Hasidic readers can find alien and even hostile because of its associations with the secular Yiddishist world. They cite the 2019 New York State Department of Health measles leaflet in Yiddish, produced without Hasidic speakers and described as “barely comprehensible, almost offensive” — it was rejected by the community it was meant for. A linguist speaking at the University of Wisconsin traces much of today’s Hasidic vocabulary to Subcarpathian Ruthenia, a region that was marginal to prewar Yiddish culture, so even an older speaker of another prewar variety may not be the right match.

When you book, say that the client is Hasidic and, if you know it, which community. A Hebrew interpreter is not a substitute either: Yiddish is a Germanic language written in Hebrew letters, and its Hebrew and Aramaic component is put at roughly 12–20% of the vocabulary — enough for a Hebrew speaker to catch words, not to interpret.

Medical words are often English, and an illness may not be named outright

Yiddish has its own terms for most medical concepts, but the UCL team found that Hasidic speakers in the United Kingdom and the United States are not always familiar with them and often use the English word instead. Their translations gave the Yiddish term with the English in parentheses, and they note that chains of synonyms are a normal device in Hasidic Yiddish. Many concepts also come in a Germanic-origin and a Hebrew-origin word — krankayt and makhle for illness, medetsinen and refues for medicines — and a given speaker may know only one of them; those who have lived in Israel tend toward the Hebrew ones.

Cancer appeared in their translations as yene makhle, “that illness”. An interpreter in an oncology appointment needs to recognize that kind of indirect reference when the patient uses it, and the clinician should confirm, through the interpreter, that the diagnosis itself has been understood rather than assume it from a nod.

Husband and wife may not share the same Yiddish, and video may not be an option

In the London Hasidic community the UCL team studied, boys are schooled in Yiddish and move at around 13 to yeshiva study of Aramaic and Hebrew texts, while girls’ schooling mixes Yiddish and English. The linguists found the result in the language itself: men know more Hebrew and Aramaic vocabulary from legal study, women have more exposure to English. In their own team, the women rejected hekhrekh for “essential” because a woman would likely not understand a word learned in yeshiva. In a school meeting or a family-court matter where both parents speak, the interpreter has to pitch vocabulary to each of them.

The same research notes that many Hasidic households have no television or internet connection and that many community authorities forbid internet-enabled smartphones. If the Yiddish speaker is joining from home, a phone call may be the only realistic format; ask before sending a video link. Hasidic society also keeps strict gender roles, so ask whether the client would prefer an interpreter of the same sex.

Yiddish is a limited-availability language

There are comparatively few qualified Yiddish interpreters working in the United States, and the ones there are get booked. That is why Yiddish carries the 25–30% limited-availability rate, and why lead time matters more here than with a common language: a week is comfortable, two days is a gamble.

We would rather tell you that before you book a hearing date than after. If your date is fixed and close, say so when you enquire and we will tell you honestly whether we can staff it rather than accepting and hoping.

The standard-availability languages are: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Mandarin, Cantonese, Arabic, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, Polish, Italian, German, Japanese, Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Tagalog, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, Armenian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Serbian, Bosnian, Somali and Nepali. Every other language we offer carries the 25–30% limited-availability rate. If a language is not on that list it is not because we cannot do it — it is because the pool of qualified interpreters in the United States is small enough that we will not promise a date without checking.

By video, by phone or in person

Virtual interpreting runs on Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, or over the telephone. It is quicker to arrange, costs less and carries no travel charge, and it suits appointments, calls and most meetings.

In person is what venues with their own rules tend to expect, and the right choice when documents are being signed or several people are speaking at once. Tell us the platform, or the city and the venue, when you send the request.

Where interpretation is used

The settings differ in what they demand of the interpreter, which is worth saying because they are frequently priced as though they were the same work:

• Asylum and immigration interviews. USCIS asylum interviews require the applicant to bring an interpreter, and the interview can be rescheduled if the interpreter does not appear or is not competent — which makes this the setting where getting it right matters most.
• Attorney–client meetings and declarations. Preparing testimony, taking a statement, going through documents.
• Depositions and hearings. Where the record is being made and accuracy is examined afterwards.
• Medical appointments. Note that hospitals receiving federal funding generally must provide language assistance themselves, so ask before you hire.
• School meetings. IEP meetings and parent conferences — districts also have their own obligations here.
• Business meetings and signings, such as real estate closings.

Each setting has its own page — who has to provide the interpreter, what the meeting asks of one and what it costs: see interpreters by setting.

What it costs

Rates are per interpreter, per hour, and billed from the scheduled start time rather than from when everyone actually arrives.

• Virtual — $80 per hour, one-hour minimum. Zoom, Google Meet, Teams or telephone.
• In person — $110 per hour, two-hour minimum.
• Limited-availability languages — add 25–30%. Which languages those are is listed below rather than left vague.
• Travel for in-person work — $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location.

How the travel charge works out

Travel is charged at $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location, which means you can work it out rather than wait for a quote: a 20-mile round trip is $14, a 60-mile round trip is $42, a 150-mile round trip is $105. There is no separate call-out fee on top.

We will not pretend to know in advance where the interpreter will be coming from — that depends on the language, the date and the venue. What we do is confirm the interpreter and the exact travel figure before you book, so it is never a surprise on the invoice. Virtual assignments carry no travel charge at all, which is one reason most of what we do is virtual.

How booking an interpreter works

• You send the request with the form below: the language, the setting, the format, the date and how long it should last.
• We confirm before you commit: the interpreter, the exact price and the travel figure if there is one. We reply the same business day, and no payment is taken at this stage.
• You confirm, and the interpreter is booked for your date.

What we will tell you before you book

Two things, both of which occasionally cost us the booking. Whether the venue supplies its own interpreter. Immigration court provides one. Hospitals receiving federal funding generally must provide language assistance. School districts have obligations of their own. If yours does, you should not be paying us — ask them first.

And whether we can actually staff your date. For a limited-availability language on short notice the honest answer is sometimes no, and we would rather say it than accept a booking we cannot fill. Interpretation is not translation: see certified translation at $24.95 per page if what you need is a document rendered in writing.

What to have ready

The more of this comes in the first message, the fewer exchanges before you have a price:

• The language, the date, the start time and how long it should run.
• Virtual or in person: the platform, or the city and the venue.
• The setting and the subject matter.
• How many people need interpreting for.
• Any credential the venue requires of the interpreter.

Request an interpreter

Tell us the date, the language and the setting and we will come back with the interpreter, the exact price and the travel figure if there is one — before you commit to anything.

Sources

The facts on this page about the language and its speakers in the United States were checked against these sources on October 28, 2026.

• U.S. Census Bureau — Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English, ACS 2009–2013 (nation and metro tables, released 2015)
• Belk, Kahn, Szendrői & Yampolskaya (University College London) — Translating Covid-19 information into Yiddish for the UK Hasidic community
• University of Wisconsin–Madison, Mayrent Institute — Chaya Nove, “New York Hasidic Yiddish: From the Mountains to the Metropolis”

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