In a time where almost every service in this country is available in English or other languages, for the high percentage of people who speak other languages, it is quite odd that the leading healthcare provider in Israel has an app that is only in Hebrew. It is such a simple change to make yet one that doesn’t seem to be anywhere on the list of priorities. Maybe at some point the 20%-30% of the country that is non Hebrew speaking can get service with Maccabi. Sincerely,The Olim Community

English is the international lingua franca and is spoken even as a second language throughout every Europen country and even Asia and South America. Yet in Israel’s official institutions and even its international Banks it’s almost impossible to find an English speaking representative at any level. Many English Olim made aliya after retirement (I am 88) when learning a new language especially like Hebrew, is very difficult. So surely Israel should make a greater effort to improve the range of its English speaking population. I also made Aliya after retirement and am 89 so learning Ivrit beyond elementary colloquialisms is well nigh impossible. The lack of English speakers is astonishing in an advanced, developed and sophisticated country like Israel - even more so in international Banks and medical institutions when English is the language of medicine. Furthermore English is conspicuously absent from notices and signs but French and Russian are used quite widely. Worse still is the absence of English on the main phone booking and Enquiries system although the option is offered!

Hebrew-Only in 2026 — Violates Ministry of Health DirectiveThis app has zero English support. No language toggle, no settings option, nothing. This isn’t just poor UX — it’s a regulatory violation.Ministry of Health Director General’s Circular 7/11 (effective February 2013) explicitly requires HMO websites and digital services to be accessible in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, and English. The Patient’s Rights Law (1996) requires that medical information be provided “in a language that is close and understandable to the patient,” reinforced by a 2014 amendment addressing patients who have difficulty understanding Hebrew.Maccabi’s response? Use Google Translate. For medical information. They even put a disclaimer on their website saying they take no responsibility for translation accuracy. That’s not accessibility — that’s liability shifting.Maccabi claims WCAG 2.0 AA compliance on their website. That standard covers screen readers and color contrast — it says absolutely nothing about providing multilingual content. Claiming AA compliance while delivering a Hebrew-only app to a country with hundreds of thousands of English, Russian, and Arabic speakers is misleading at best.Post-2024 immigration from English-speaking countries hit a 30-year high. Maccabi markets itself as having a high percentage of Anglo staff and patients. Yet the app those patients actually need to use daily — booking appointments, viewing test results, communicating with doctors — remains locked behind a language wall with no accommodation.One star until there’s full compliance the law as it pertains languageq. Not Google Translate. An actual interface.

Being new to Israel (our family moved July 2022) still haven’t learned enough Hebrew to navigate the app comfortably. Yes, there’s Google translate but I can’t even login to the app to begin with and neither can the nice ladies in my local maccabi office. I was told to contact the maccabi admin and ask them to help me login to access my medical records. More lines more frustration with something that is intended to make medical records easier to access. This app need to be more user friendly if it’s the only way insurance companies will send communications. Israel is full of new immigrants from English speaking countries there must be an English option available it isn’t difficult to add this function .