She wrote for numerous Jewish publications in Berlin and the United States, and edited and translated the works of many other writers.

She studied literature and philosophy in Breslau, Berlin and Munich, and with her thesis on Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, became one of the first women in Prussia to receive a doctoral degree.

She wrote articles for a variety of Jewish newspapers, including Jüdische Rundschau, Der Jude, Israelitische Familienblatt, Blätter des Jüdischen Frauenbundes and Der Morgen, and contributed to two Jewish encyclopedias, Encyclopaedia Judaica and Jüdisches Lexikon [de].

She was also a prolific editor and translator of works by other writers, including Droste-Hülshoff, Achim von Arnim, Moses Mendelssohn, Fanny Lewald, Hermann Cohen, Rahel Varnhagen, Heinrich Heine, Süßkind von Trimberg, Profiat Duran and Leon of Modena.

She published a biography of the Zionist Jessie Sampter titled White Fire: The Life and Works of Jessie Sampter, and continued to write for a variety of Jewish-American publications: Aufbau, The Jewish Way, The Menorah Journal, The Reconstructionist, The National Jewish Monthly, Hadassah Newsletter and Women's League Outlook.