Bel Kaufman was born in Berlin, the daughter of Lala Rabiniwitz and Michael Kaufman, and she is the granddaughter of famed Yiddish writer Sholom Aleichem, on whose stories Fiddler on the Roof is based. Kaufman was raised in Odessa and Moscow before emigrating the the U.S. in 1924 at age twelve. Despite knowing no English when she came to the U.S., she graduated from South Side High School (Newark, New Jersey) in 1929, and went on to earn her B.A. magna cum laude from Hunter College (1934), her M.A. from Columbia University in 1936. Kaufman maried Sydney Goldstine in 1940 and they two children, Jonathan Goldstine and Thea Goldstine; the couple later divorced. She taught high school English for many years, was assistant profesor of English at the City University of New York and lecturer at the New School for Social Research, and has taught creative writing seminars and workshops at the University of Florida and the University of Rochester and other institutions.

Kaufman is best known as the author of Up the Down Staircase (1964), a novel based on her experiences as a New York City high school teacher, which was made into a play as well as movie starring Sandy Dennis (1967) and is in its fifty-seventh printing. She is also the author of Love, Etc. (1979), a novel about coping with the breakup of a marriage, and of many short stories. Kaufman has been a highly sought-after public speaker at education conventions and Jewish organizations throughout the country, and has won many honors and awards, including honorary degrees from several colleges and universities.