Benas completed school at the Höhere Töchterschule at age 14,[1] where her education was limited to subjects which taught women how to be effective housewives.

[2] She supplemented her meager education by reading German classics and the newspaper, Breslauer Zeitung, which aroused her early interest in politics.

[3] In 1853, Benas married her cousin, Abraham Meir Goldschmidt, a widower with three sons, who was the rabbi of the Warsaw German-Jewish congregation.

She quickly became involved in the German-Jewish community[3] and was exposed to the ideas of Friedrich Fröbel, founder of the early-childhood kindergarten education system.

[3] In 1871, Goldschmidt founded the Society for Family Education and for People's Welfare (German: Verein fuer Familienerziehung und Volkswohl),[5] with the goal of training kindergarten teachers in the Fröbel method.

[3] By 1878, she organized the High School for Ladies (German: Lyzeum für Damen), where professors from the University of Leipzig gave lectures to students.

Members of the association were also allowed to reside in the house and both the writer Josephine Siebe and educator Anna Zabel were known to have lived there.

[1] Though Goldschmidt defended the plan, publishing a response to her critics Ist der Kindergarten eine Erziehungs- oder Zwangsanstalt?

[1] She strove to fill a gap and not compete with university studies[3] and in 1911, Goldschmidt achieved the high point of her career, with the establishment of the first institution in Germany offering higher education specifically to women.

[1] Once again, she utilized professors from the University of Leipzig, to supplement the coursework, but Goldschmidt and Agnes Gosche [de] taught classes between 1911 and 1913.