Bel Kaufman was born on May 10, 1911 in Berlin, Germany as Bella Kaufman. She was an actress and writer, known for Up the Down Staircase (1967). She was married to Sidney J. Gluck and Sydney A. Goldstine. She died on July 25, 2014 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
[on her childhood during the Russian Revolution] Dead bodies were frozen in peculiar positions on the street. People ate bread made of the shells of peas because there was no flour. But a child has no basis for comparison. Doesn't every child step over dead bodies? I didn't know any different.
2
I remember his [referring to grandfather Sholom Aleichem] laugh; I remember his hand when we walked. He used to say the tighter I hold on to his hand, the better he will write. He wrote me a letter which I treasure: 'I'm writing you this letter to ask you to hurry and grow up and learn to write so you can write me a letter. In order to grow up, it is necessary to drink milk and eat soup and vegetables and fewer candies'.
3
[on teaching a course on Jewish humor at Hunter College] We were not just telling jokes. We were investigating why so many comedians are Jewish and so many Jewish jokes are so self-accusing. It goes back to immigration from the shtetl, from that poverty, and because the Jew was the object of so much opprobrium and hatred. The jokes were a defense mechanism: 'We're going to talk about ourselves in a more damaging way than you could.'
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Fact
1
She is survived by her partner of more than 40 years, Sidney J. Gluck. They were never technically married.
2
In the 1940s, she wanted to sell a story to Esquire magazine, which took a dim view of submissions by women. She began signing her work with the more androgynous first name Bel.
3
As a rookie schoolteacher, it was difficult for Ms. Kaufman to get fully certified by a byzantine school bureaucracy. The examiners had her explain a sonnet by Edna St. Vincent Millay, and told her afterward she had given "a poor interpretation." Having been blocked once before because of a trace of a greenhorn accent, she refused to be stopped a second time. So she did what any true aspirant would have done: she wrote a letter to Ms. Millay and had her evaluate her interpretation. "You gave a much better explanation of it than I myself should have," the poet wrote back, and the chastened examiners saved face by urging Ms. Kaufman to try for the license again.
4
She is the granddaughter of Sholom Aleichem, the greatest of all Yiddish authors, whose stories about Tevya (1939) the dairyman were made into the musical Fiddler on the Roof (1971).
5
Named to the Hall of Fame of Hunter College.
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Awarded plaque from the Anti-Defamation League, as well as the United Jewish Appeal.
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On the board of directors for the Shalom Aleichem Foundation.
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Is fluent in the Russian language.
Actress
Title
Year
Status
Character
Up the Down Staircase
1967
Teacher talking to Mr. McHabe (uncredited)
Writer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Up the Down Staircase
1967
novel
Known for movies
Up the Down Staircase 1967 as Teacher talking to Mr. McHabe
$1.4 Million