This page is an effort to create an official guideline regarding the transliteration of Hebrew and Israeli names for Wikipedia articles. The discussion is ongoing at Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (Hebrew). This page currently reflects a DRAFT policy which has not currently been accepted as official policy.

This guideline covers:

• The conventions for naming an article or section based on a Hebrew word ("article naming").
• The conventions for including a Hebrew word or phrase in an article ("in-line Hebrew").

Both of these are essentially translation/transliteration/romanization conventions, since the ability to read Hebrew is not a prerequisite for use of the English Wikipedia.

The following terms are used in this guideline:

• "Vowel" - only the three letters alef, vav (holam male and kubutz) and yud, without nikud. Not to be confused with "vowel sounds"
• "Vowel sound" - a no-sound consonant (alef or ayin) with nikud

Each article must have only a single title. Other plausible titles should redirect to this title.

See also: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English) and Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names)

If there is a standard Anglicized name for a topic (Moses, Haifa, Gaza, bris, Torah, rabbi, rebbe, Netanyahu, Jerusalem, etc.), then that name should be used in the title and in in-line text, no matter how unlike the modern Hebrew that name is.

Some topics may have several common widely-accepted English transliterations (e.g. the name Chaim vs. Haim vs. Hayim), and sometimes it is debated whether there is a standard English transliteration at all (Beersheba vs. Be'er Sheva). In these cases, the context of the article should be taken into account. For example, Beersheba may be used to describe the city in general, while Be'er Sheva may be used for the Be'er Sheva North Railway Station, which pertains only to modern Israel.

Official transliterations into English used by primary soures only should also take precedence over the correct transliteration, e.g. Ness Ziona. However, Israeli government, Central Bureau of Statistics and Hebrew Academy transliterations, which encompass many subjects, will not take precedence over the rules below.

The rules for article naming provided below apply only when there is no standard or official Anglicized name.

If a topic pertains primarily to modern Israel (e.g., a modern city that did not exist before, say, 1850), the article should be named according to modern Israeli Hebrew. Specifically, the title should be based on a practical modification of the Hebrew Academy's romanization scheme, provided below.

If unsure whether a topic pertains to modern Israel, and there is no standard romanization, the rules below should be used as well.

Vowels (Template:Lang-he imot kri'a) (alef, vav and yud without nikud), as well as ayin without nikud, will be omitted, with one exception: a yud vowel after a tzeire will be rendered as i. Thus:

• kara (Template:Hebrew)
• kara (Template:Hebrew)
• Galil (Template:Hebrew)
• Tavor (Template:Hebrew)

But:

• Beit She'an (Template:Hebrew)
• tzeire (Template:Hebrew)

Between a shva and a vowel sound or between nikud and a vowel sound, an apostrophe will be used to indicate a short stop. Thus:

• mal'akh (Template:Hebrew)
• be'er (Template:Hebrew)

In all capitalized words, he haydi'a (ha, he) will be capitalized, as well as the word after it. If the word is not capitalized, neither the he nor the word after it will have a capital letter. For transliterations directly after in-line Hebrew text, all words will generally be capitalized. The rules in the previous section apply. Thus:

• he haydi'a (Template:Hebrew)
• beit he'avot (Template:Hebrew)
• The Elders' Home (Template:Hebrew Beit HeAvot)
• Beit HaKerem (Template:Hebrew)

Dagesh (both types) and mapik will be omitted, except where applicable per above (e.g. Knesset).

When the topic of an article pertains primarily to Eastern European Jewry (e.g., a rebbe from the 1700s), its title should reflect Ashkenazic pronunciation and tradition. Similarly, if its topic pertains primarily to Oriental Jews (e.g., a Bukharan food), its title should reflect Oriental Sephardic pronunciation and tradition, and so on. Below are the main differences between the modern Israeli transliteration and the transliteration in question. Note that pronunciations in practice may vary greatly, but are not covered in this guideline (see: Wikipedia:Manual of Style (pronunciation)).

When the topic of an article predates the Diaspora, the title should reflect ancient pronunciation by using a form of the general-purpose, diacritic-less transliteration scheme described by the Society of Biblical Literature's SBL Handbook of Style. This scheme is flexible, however.

In in-line Hebrew, all words which are not proper names (location and human names) or English words taken from Hebrew (rabbi, bris, etc.) should be italicized, per Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Foreign terms. This does not apply to article and section naming. Additionally, even proper names in in-line transliterations coming directly after Hebrew text will be italicized. Thus:

• beit he'avot (Template:Hebrew)
• Beit HaKerem (Template:Hebrew)
• Carmel City (Template:Hebrew Ir HaKarmel)

Certain diacritics may be used for regular in artcle transliterations which should not be used with article or section names. Notably, the h with a dot underneath it (ḥ) for ḥet (Also, ẓ, and ḳ). Note that this usage is discouraged, unless there is a clear need to differentiate between he, ḥet and khaf

For Hebrew transliterations including nikud, a 125%-sized font will be used. There are two templates for this purpose: {{Hebrew}} for regular in-line Hebrew text and {{lang-he-n}} for text with the Hebrew: prefix.

• Wikipedia:Niqqud