Bel Kaufman

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Bella "Bel" Kaufman, a well-known American educator and author best known for writing the best-selling 1964 book Up the Down Staircase, was written by Bella "Bel" Kaufman (May 10, 1911 – July 25, 2014).

Early life

Bella's father, Michael Kaufman (Mikhail Y. Koyfman) and her mother, Lala (Lyalya) Kaufman (née Rabinowitz), were both from Russia and married in 1909. Bella Kaufman was born in Berlin, Germany, where her father was studying medicine. The family returned to Russia where her father's studies had been completed. Her father became a doctor and her mother, Sholem Aleichem's second-oldest daughter, later became a writer under the name Lala Kaufman.

Bel was the older of two children at the time. Sherwin's brother, who was born nine years earlier, was a New York City physician. Bel's native language was Russian, and she was born in Odesa and Kyiv (in modern Ukraine). In an Odessa magazine, she published her first poem, "Spring." It was difficult to live there.

Kaufman and her parents immigrated to the United States in 1922 at the age of 12. She and her family lived in Newark, New Jersey, where her father, who practiced medicine until his death in 1938, lived. Her mother began writing in Russian but moved to write sketches and stories in Yiddish, which were also translated into Russian from Yiddish's Yiddish grandfather (Sholem Aleichem)'s Yiddish (Forwards).

Bel Kaufman first learned English after her arrival in the United States, but it was difficult for her. She was placed in first graders' classes at age 12 when entering public school because of their language. She graduated from Hunter College in New York with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1934. She cites a teacher who taught her the English language in her elementary years, and it was through her that she discovered her love for English literature. Bel earned a Master's degree in literature from Columbia University in 1936.

Personal life

Following her graduation from Columbia University in 1936, Kaufman married Sydney Goldstine in 1936. Jonathan (a computer science researcher) and Thea (a psychologist). In the 1960s, the couple divorced. In 2000, Sydney Goldstine died. Susan Goldstine, a mathematics professor, was Bel's one granddaughter.

Bel married Sidney J. Gluck, a photographer, Sinologist, and public interest advocate five years her junior in the 1970s. The couple were married until her death. In 2010, Kaufman commemorated her 99th birthday at the annual memorial to her late grandfather, Yidish writer Sholem Aleichem. At age 101 in July 2012, she was still writing at the age of 102.

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Career

Kaufman began teaching in various New York City high schools and later worked part-time as a writer under the name Bel Kaufman, but Esquire refused to publish manuscripts from male authors.

Up the Down Staircase, a book about an aspiring young honors college graduate who enrolls in an English teaching position in a New York City high school, was published in 1964. She emphasizing the harsh realities of her colleagues and students. The book was based on Kaufman's own teaching experiences. The Down Staircase started as a short story (just three and a half pages long) and appeared in The Saturday Review on November 17, 1962 under the heading From a Teacher's Wastebasket. The Down Staircase became a huge success, remained on the New York Times Best Seller list for 64 weeks. The book was turned into a film of the same name in 1967, starring Sandy Dennis. The book was also turned into a play, with over 100 Broadway, off-Broadway, and road stage productions putting it into play.

Love, etc., a Kaufman's second book, published in 1979. It was not a huge success, but it was not a critical success. She later published a few short stories and then continued as a tutor and lecturer in New York City. "I don't like writing; in truth, I dislike writing and would rather do something else," Kaufman wrote. But the joy comes when I come close to saying what I want to hear, even though I am ashamed. A sentence or an insight leaps off the page.

Bel Kaufman, who was 99 years old, was recruited by her alma mater Hunter College in February 2011 to teach a course on Jewish humor. During her first semester of classes, she was 100 years old. Kaufman, who spent her days writing on Manhattan's Upper East Side, said, "I'm too occupied to get old."

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Awards and honors

• Honorary chairman of the Yiddish Studies faculty at Columbia University
• Board of Directors for the Sholem Aleichem Memorial Foundation
• Anti-Defamation League award
• United Jewish Appeal award
• Member of Hall of Fame, Hunter College