Kaufman, Bel

The parents of Bel Kaufman are American writers and Yiddish journalists Mikhail Yakovlevich Koyfman and Lyalya (Sara Solomonovna) Rabinovich (1887–1964) ^[3] . Born in Berlin , where her father studied at the Medical Faculty of the University of Berlin. ^[4] She spent her childhood (since the beginning of the First World War) in Odessa , from December 1923 - in the USA . ^{[5] [6]} First, the family lived in the Bronx , and a year later, when her father received a license to practice medicine, she moved to Newark . ^[7]

She graduated with honors from Hunter College in New York in 1934, then a master's degree in literature at Columbia University (1936) ^[8] . For decades she worked as an English teacher in high schools in New York, then at the City University of New York .

Began to publish short prose from the end of the 1930s. In the 1940s, she published stories and sketches in Esquire magazine, taking the literary pseudonym Bel Kaufman (Bel Kaufman) ^[9] .

Bel Kaufman brought her main fame to his semi-autobiographical and repeatedly reprinted novel “ Up the stairs leading down ” ( Eng. Up the Down Staircase ; 1965; Russian translation by E. Ivanova and S. Shaikkevich, 1967 ), based on many years of teaching experience. ^[10] In a journal form, it was originally published in the in its November 17, 1962 issue. The novel was filmed by director Robert Mulligan in 1967 ( "Up the Down Staircase" ) with Sandy Dennis in the lead role. Based on the novel in 1969, Bel Kaufman also released a play of the same name. The novel was translated into 16 languages ​​and came out with a total circulation of more than 6 million copies, and its name - Up the Down Staircase - turned into an idiomatic expression. ^[eleven]

Kaufman also owns the novel “ Love, and so on ... ” ( English Love, etc. ), a collection of stories from different years “La Tigresse” ( Tigress , 2013), a book of autobiographical essays “This and That” ( This and that 2012); in 2004, her illustrated book of memories of childhood years in Odessa, Odessa Memories (with co-authors) , was published. Other works include the story “On Sunday in the Park” (Sunday in the Park, 1985), the collection “In America Abroad” (Abroad in America, 1976). Bel Kaufman's stories “A letter to the late teacher” and “And again up the stairs leading down” were included in the collection “Near West” (Moscow: Progress, 1982).

Bel Kaufman was the honorary chair of the Yiddish department of Columbia University .

Children from first marriage to a doctor Sydney Goldstein ( Eng. Sydney Goldstine , 1909–2000, since 1933) - Jonathan Goldstein ( Eng. Jonathan Goldstine , born 1942), professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Pennsylvania , and Thea Goldstein ( Eng Thea L. Goldstine , born 1944), a psychologist. ^{[12] [13] [14]}

Husband (since 1975) - Sydney Gluck ( born Sidney J. Gluck , born 1917), professor of political economy at the New School of Social Research , entrepreneur, president of The Sholem Aleichem Memorial Foundation ( The Sholem Aleichem Memorial Foundation ) ^[15] . According to Kaufman herself, “he has five professions. There was a Marxist professor. Television has its own program about China. He is an artist. He is a photographer. He heads the Sholom Aleichem Foundation ” ^[16] .

Brother - Shervin Kaufman ( born Sherwin Allen Kaufman , b. 1920), obstetrician-gynecologist, composer and songwriter, author of several scientific and popular books on gynecology, infertility treatment, organizational issues of obstetric care. ^{[17] [18]}

Her two aunts by her father, Basia (Berta) Koyfman and Udl (Adel) Koyfman, were married to Jewish writers (respectively Mordkhe Spektor and Dovid Pinsky ).

• 1964 - " Up the stairs leading down "
• 1979 - “ Love and Everything Else ”

• Up the Down Staircase (novel). Pan Books, 1964 (many reprints, translations).
• Bel Kaufman's Up the Down Staircase (piece). The Dramatic Publishing, 1969.
• Love, etc. (novel). Prentice Hall, 1979; Open Road, 2012.
• This and That: Random Thoughts and Recollections. Open Road, 2012.
• La Tigresse and Other Short Stories. Open Road, 2013.

• Interview with Bel Kaufman. 2001. The magazine "Seagull".
• Yes, I am his granddaughter! : Interview with Alexander Burakovsky . // Vestnik.com № 10 (321), May 14, 2003.
• Hi, teacher! : Interview Tatiana Beck . // Nezavisimaya Gazeta , October 29, 2004.
• All that is written and filmed about the school is a repetition of “Up the stairs leading down”. Interview with Anastasia Orlyanskaya // OpenSpace, January 11, 2011.
• Bel Kaufman is 100 years old. Happy birthday Bellochka!
• Bel Kaufman: “She has lived for 100 years, but I don’t feel it.” Video interview on RUNYweb.com