[3] Her mother initially composed in Russian but went on to write sketches and stories in Yiddish that were published regularly for many years in the Jewish Daily Forward (Forverts),[4] and she also translated some of Bel's grandfather (Sholem Aleichem)'s works from Yiddish into Russian.

She attended Hunter College in New York, graduating magna cum laude in 1934 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

[8] Kaufman began work as a teacher in various New York City high schools, while also working part-time as a writer (including articles for Esquire magazine) under the name Bel Kaufman, shortened because Esquire only accepted manuscripts from male authors.

In 1964, she published Up the Down Staircase, a novel about an idealistic young honors college graduate who becomes an English teacher in a New York City high school and deals with the gritty realities of her colleagues and students.

Up the Down Staircase was originally a short story—only three and a half pages long — published in The Saturday Review on November 17, 1962, under the title From a Teacher's Wastebasket.

"[9] At 99 years old, Bel Kaufman was hired by her alma mater Hunter College in February 2011 to teach a course on Jewish humor.

"I'm too busy to get old", noted Kaufman, who spent her days writing in her book-lined study on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

[citation needed] In the 1970s, Bel married, secondly, to Sidney J. Gluck, a photographer, Sinologist, and public interest advocate five years her junior.

In 2010, Kaufman celebrated her 99th birthday at the annual memorial to her famous grandfather, the Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem.