The narrative comprises Sylvia's wistful letters to a college friend, now married and safely installed in the suburbs bits of student papers (“We study myths like Orpheum & his girl friend because it takes place in the Greek Underground”) and messages left in the class suggestion box (“You're a good teacher except for the rotten books you have to teach like the Oddissy. Largely epistolary in structure, “Up the Down Staircase” is organized as a series of dispatches from the front as it follows Sylvia through her first year at Calvin Coolidge High, a fictitious yet all-too-real New York public school. Kaufman wrote one other novel, “Love, Etc.,” about a middle-aged woman coping with divorce. She was also a highly visible public presence at events commemorating the work of the great Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem, her maternal grandfather. The book and movie made Kaufman a celebrity for decades afterward, she was in demand as a speaker before educational and civic groups. Directed by Robert Mulligan, it starred Sandy Dennis as Kaufman's idealistic young teacher, Sylvia Barrett. Why? She will tell you because she is curious, always open to new experiences and opportunities.“Up the Down Staircase” was made into a popular movie of the same name, released in 1967. It is but one of the secrets of her longevity. “I don’t have time to grow old” she says. She continues to view herself as a work in progress. Reinventing herself at this stage of her life comes easily to her. When she was offered to teach a course about Jewish humor at Hunter College, her alma mater, in 2011, she jumped at the opportunity. It suffices to look at Bel’s calendar to grasp her stamina, curiosity, and drive. At 96, just as vibrant, energetic, and creative as Bel who will be 102 on May 10. With an added bonus: his name is Sidney Gluck, Bel’s husband of 40 years, an inventor, artist, economist, and consummate expert on China. It was, as the French expression conveys best: a coup de foudre! And so began a friendship unlike any other I have experienced. Bel and her husband Sidney Gluck, Photo ©Isabel Bau Maddenįollowing our first meeting, three years ago, at an yearly tribute to Nobel Prize Winner Joseph Brodsky at the legendary restaurant, the Russian Samovar, in a matter of weeks, we were on Belochka terms.

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