Always take the
best Israel road map in English along with you. But when you have internet access, you'll want to know that
Google Maps Israel is now available in transliterated/translated
English, however the English transliterations/translations are highly
inconsistent. For example the Jerusalem neighborhoods, תלפיות
מזרח and פסגת זאב מזרח are rendered as Talpiyot Mizrah
and East Pisgat Ze'ev respectively, and not to leave out the one that
drives most native English speakers batty, המושבה גרמנית is
rendered as Ha-moshava Ha-Germanit instead of German Colony. There
also seems to be a lack of any kind consistency regrading the letter
'ח', sometimes its transliterated as a 'H' sometimes as a 'Ch', but
that debate has been going on for a while, so I'll excuse Google for
the confusion.
More importantly
Google Maps Israel now provides street directions
both in Hebrew and English. Also you can use the 'Map Of' feature in
the Address Book app to find addresses in Israel. Google Maps is able
to correctly parse out the address from the Address Book entry. So for
example if I've entered, 30 Beit ha-Dfus in the address field, Giv'at
Sha'ul in the city field, Jerusalem in the state field (I use the
United States Address Format for Israeli cities with the city field
for neighborhoods and the state field for cities), 95483 in the postal
code field, and Israel (its very important to include the country) in
the country field, Google will successfully find the address. Google
Maps ignores Israeli postal codes, and apartment numbers in your
Address Book cards, so for example if you have the address as 50/5
Mitspe Nevo, Google will ignore the '/5', and search for just the 50.
Including the neighborhood in your Google Maps search or Address Book
card is completely unnecessary, and in fact may cause failed results
if you don't transliterate the name exactly the way Google Maps has,
or if you've entered the wrong neighborhood.
More
Google Maps Israel Tips:
You can also search for landmarks such as, buildings, institutions,
parks, etc. (e.g. Malha Mall, Jerusalem, Israel)
The definite article (ה"א הידיעה) is usually rendered as 'Ha-'.
Syllables are usually separated by an apostrophe.
The letter 'צ' is usually transliterated as 'Ts'.
The letter 'ק' is usually transliterated as 'Q'
Tzviisramac yahoogroupOctober 2008
