Aliza Shenhar

Aliza Shenhar was born in 1943 in Rosh Pinna

Shenhar was born in 1943 to Malka and Israel Guter, who lived in Rosh Pinna at the time. As a child she moved with her family to Haifa, where she finished high school at the Hebrew Reali School area's Tichon Hadash in 1961. She was active in the Working and Studying Youth movement.

She served in the Navy from 1961 to 1963. She earned her bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, focusing on Hebrew and folk literature. Her doctorate, on family conflict in Jewish folk tales, was submitted in 1975.

At the University of Haifa she became a full professor in 1989 and headed several academic units. In 1991 she was elected rector and also chaired the Shenhar Committee on Jewish studies in state schools. From 1994 to 1997 she was ambassador to Russia, and from 1997 she was president of the Emek Yezreel Academic College.

In 2003 she was the Labor Party candidate for mayor of Haifa but withdrew and backed Yona Yahav, later serving as deputy mayor. In 2006 a court convicted her of defamation, and the conviction was later overturned. She announced her retirement from politics in 2008.