Luna Kaufman (nee Luna Fuss) was born in Krakow, Poland in 1926. She is a holocaust survivor who spent four years in ghettos and concentration camps. She lost many relatives during the war, including her father and teenaged sister. After the war Luna and her mother returned to Krakow, where she studied musicology at Jagiellonian University. She left Poland in 1950 to emigrate to Israel. While there, she married Alex Kaufman, who she had met in Krakow and corresponded with after he emigrated to the United States. He returned to the United States, and six months later she followed. The couple eventually settled in Watchung, New Jersey.

Kaufman became a tireless advocate for Jewish-Christian understanding, engaging in many forms of activism including public speaking, Holocaust education, and service in many organizations dedicated to promoting Jewish-Christian relations. She was inspired by her close friend Sister Rose Thering, a Catholic nun and activist against anti-Semitism, and served as the chair of the Sister Rose Thering Fund for Education in Jewish-Christian Studies for many years. Her memoir Luna’s Life: A Journey of Forgiveness and Triumph was published in 2009.