Hebrew-language edition of Wikipedia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hebrew Wikipedia (Hebrew: ויקיפדיה העברית, IPA: [vikiˈpedja ha(ʔ)ivˈʁit]) is the Hebrew language edition of Wikipedia. This edition was started on 8 July 2003[1] and contains more than 369,000 articles as of February 2025.
| |
 Main Page of the Hebrew Wikipedia in 2022 | |
Type of site | Internet encyclopedia project |
|---|---|
| Available in | Hebrew |
| Owner | Wikimedia Foundation |
| URL | he.wikipedia.org |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Optional |
| Launched | 8 July 2003 |
Content license | Creative Commons Attribution/ Share-Alike 4.0 (most text also dual-licensed under GFDL) Media licensing varies |
Hebrew Wikipedia features several organized article writing projects, among them Wikitort - an academic project to write original articles about tort law,[3] PhysiWiki - a project to write and improve articles about Physics with the cooperation of Weizmann Institute of Science,[4] and ongoing academic projects.[5] Another major topic is Jewish history and the History of Israel. In 2006, the Elef Millim project[6] (English: Thousand Words/Thousand Miles project) was launched to provide Wikipedia with free images. Groups of Wikipedians meet for field trips around the country to take pictures of Israeli sites.
Hebrew spelling is a matter of debate. Since the standards published by the Academy of the Hebrew Language are not always meticulously followed in common usage, the Hebrew Wikipedia community decides on problematic cases of spelling through discussion and polls to ensure consistency. When technically possible, spelling decisions are periodically enforced using automatic replacement by a bot.[7]
Hebrew Wikipedia's requirements for notability standards are relatively strict.[8]
Hebrew Wikipedia organizes yearly competitions, sometimes with the assistance of the Wikimedia Foundation, as well as social gatherings and picnics.
Haaretz journalist Omer Benjakob said in 2023 in relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that "Unlike many Wikipedias in languages with a global span, like English, Spanish or Arabic, Hebrew Wikipedia resembles its Polish or Hungarian counterparts in being more of an "Israeli Wikipedia." It can be seen as having an implicit pro-Israeli bias."[9]
On the occasion of the 100,000 articles milestone, the Science and Technology Committee of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) invited Wikipedia contributors and users to the 2 February 2010 morning meeting, to join in a debate about Wikipedia and other open-source resources. Some Wikipedia contributors at the meeting criticized "the lack of government cooperation with their efforts to compile a free online Hebrew-language encyclopedia," as well as sharing complaints from Wikipedia editors abroad that since the Israel Defense Forces does not release photos for free redistribution on the Internet, the sole source of available pictures for entries such as the Gaza War and the 2006 Lebanon War are the Palestinians.[10]
Hamichlol (Hebrew: המכלול "The Entirety") is a mirror of the Hebrew Wikipedia. It contains articles copied from the Hebrew Wikipedia which are edited to be acceptable to Orthodox Jewish readers.
| Number of user accounts | Number of articles | Number of files | Number of active users | Number of administrators |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,192,397 | 369,204 | 83,522 | 3,188 | 30 |
As of January 2024, the Hebrew Wikipedia ranks among the best language editions in retention of new editors, while also having one of the highest edit revert rates.[11]
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