[2] In 1939, fleeing the Nazi regime, she moved with her family to Palestine where she continued her education through high school.

[3] After high school, in 1949, Adelman moved to the United States and attended the University of California, Berkeley, where she received her bachelor's degree in Business Administration in 1950, her Master's in economics in 1951, and her Ph.D. in economics in 1955.

She was then a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the Graduate School of the University of California, Berkeley from 1979 until her 1994 retirement.

[4][5] Adelman is credited with having made important contributions in the field of development economics.

[4] Noted co-authors include Hollis B. Chenery, Cynthia Taft Morris and Sherman Robinson.