Spelling the Persian Name Pejman in a Ketubah or Get

The correct spelling of names in the Get is critical to its efficacy. In this article, Rabbi Djavaheri discusses the transliteration of Persian (Iranian) names. The name at hand, Pejman, includes the Farsi letter ز (the /ʒ/ phoneme, a voiced postalveolar fricative, which sounds like J as in Jacques).

Ashkenazim traditionally mark this sound with a זש, but there are different customs among Sepharadim. Some do a ג’ (a gimmel with an apostrophe), while others use a ז’.

The responsum include a letter from Hacham Asher Hatchuel from the Sephardic Bet Din of Brooklyn and references to the views of other great Sephardic Dayanim of Israel and America today, including Rav Moshe Basri, Rav Eliyahu Ben-Haim, Rav Nissim Davidi, Rav Shmuel Khoshkerman,

Le’Halacha: both פג’מאן and פז’מאן are acceptable.

It was published in Beis Yitzchok vol. 50 pg. 232.