Rifa‘at ‘Ali Abou-El-Haj was born in Jerusalem in 1933. He was enrolled in the British-run St. George School until 1947, when he and his family had to relocate to Egypt due to wartime conditions. There, he attended a missionary school until 1948. After the Nakba and the creation of Israel in 1948, he was a student at the Friends Boys School in Ramallah (then Jordan) until he graduated in 1952. He then moved to the United States, where he attended Washington and Lee University, from which he graduated in 1956. Rifa‘at received his doctorate from Princeton University in 1962. Although he had been accepted at both Harvard and Princeton, he chose Princeton because three of his mentors had been students there.

Rifa‘at ‘Ali Abou-El-Haj was born in Jerusalem in 1933. He was enrolled in the British-run St. George School until 1947, when he and his family had to relocate to Egypt due to wartime conditions. There, he attended a missionary school until 1948. After the Nakba and the creation of Israel in 1948, he was a student at the Friends Boys School in Ramallah (then Jordan) until he graduated in 1952. He then moved to the United States, where he attended Washington and Lee University, from which he graduated in 1956. Rifa‘at received his doctorate from Princeton University in 1962. Although he had been accepted at both Harvard and Princeton, he chose Princeton because three of his mentors had been students there.