Haya Freedman was born in
Lviv, which at that time was part of Poland, and at the age of ten moved to
Mandatory Palestine. She earned a master's degree from the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, studying
abstract algebra there under the supervision of
Jacob Levitzki. She began doctoral studies under
Dov Tamari in the early 1950s, doing research on the
Tamari lattice that she would much later publish with Tamari. However, at that time her husband wanted to shift his own research from mathematics to computer science, and as part of that shift decided to move to England. Freedman moved with him in 1956, breaking off her studies. Instead, she completed a PhD at
Queen Mary College in 1960, under the supervision of
Kurt Hirsch. ==Academic career==