Paula agreed at once, but her father objected to the match, both because of the fifteen-year difference in age between the two and also because he feared that, like her sister, she would be infected by the tuberculosis from which Ben-Yehuda suffered.

In the winter of 1892, a diphtheria epidemic that broke out in Jerusalem caused the death of three of the children of Deborah and Eliezer, leaving only two, Ben-Zion (Itamar), and Yemima.

During the entire period Ben-Yehuda's mother had been helping him run the household, but now, when all seemed lost, Shelomo Jonas relented.

At the age of nineteen she came to develop herself in a desolate, distant land with a poverty-stricken, persecuted, consumptive widower fifteen years older than herself, and his two orphaned children.

On all she did she imposed the dominant personality of a young, modern, secular woman whose principles of aesthetics, culture and enlightenment informed her choices and actions.

She also made her home a model for modern life in Jerusalem; after a long day of hard work (the newspaper by which they made their living, together with its printing, was operated from their apartment) and caring for the children, she invited people of letters and culture from Erez Israel and abroad to their home, referring to this custom as creating a "meeting place for scholars" (Pirkei Avot 1:4).

Above all, she became involved in all Ben-Yehuda's professional and political activities, especially the disputes with his opponents which led to bans, arrests and lawsuits that affected their livelihood and his status in the community.

At the end of 1893 she succeeded in securing Ben-Yehuda's release when he and her father were imprisoned and Ha-Zevi, the newspaper on which their livelihood depended, ceased publication for fourteen months.

Since Ben-Yehuda was occupied with caring for her, her father edited the festive issue and published an article praising the heroism of the Maccabees.

She accompanied her husband on his travels to libraries and archives, met with American and European leaders, and appeared before Jewish audiences, Zionist and non-Zionist alike.

Hemdah Ben-Yehuda was active in three additional areas on which she left her original mark: journalism, literature and the advancement of women's status in Palestine.

Unlike the average contemporary Hebrew newspaper, which used ornate, clumsy diction to discuss world affairs, Hemdah's compositions, including her critical pieces, dealt with everyday human subjects.

Yet her major literary work was a family trilogy of which only two volumes were published: The third volume, These works were not only novels documenting the family's dramatic and colorful life, but also provided a Zionist narrative in which the Ben-Yehudas, who were mythical figures for her, represented the nation's founders, appearing in the threefold character of the father (Eliezer, who performed "sacred service"), the mother (Deborah, the "family’s idol" and the first woman to revive Hebrew in the speech of her children), and the son (Ithamar Ben-Avi, the "standard-bearer", the "guinea pig" in the fateful experiment of raising a child speaking only Hebrew).