Tanya Reinhart

Tanya Reinhart was born in 1943 in Haifa

Reinhart was born in Haifa in 1943 to parents who had come to the country from Hungary. Her parents were members of the Palestine Communist Party. Her father died when she was a child, and her mother raised the family with little money.

In 1964 she began studying philosophy and Hebrew literature at the Hebrew University, and later earned a master's degree in philosophy and comparative literature. While a student she helped found a student committee for security through peace. In 1976 she completed a PhD in linguistics at MIT under Noam Chomsky.

She then returned to Israel and joined Tel Aviv University as a professor of linguistics and literary theory, and also taught at Utrecht University. Her research dealt with the relations between meaning, context, syntax and sound systems. From 1993 she taught a course analyzing the Israeli media.

Reinhart criticized Israel's occupation of Lebanon and of the Palestinian territories, and called for withdrawal from the territories taken in 1967. With colleagues she founded Forum, a group of lecturers for human rights and political debate. In 2002 she was criticized in Israel for signing a European petition on halting support for Israeli academia.

In 2006 she left Israel and Tel Aviv University with her husband, the poet Aharon Shabtai, saying the university had harassed her. She became a professor at New York University. She died in her sleep in New York on 17 March 2007 and was buried in Einat.