Life for nineteenth century American women was full of restrictions and limitations. Frowned upon or simply not permitted to enter "male" spheres of activity such as professions, business and politics, many middle class women turned to philanthropy and reform work as the sole acceptable outlet for their energy, talents, and time. American Jews of German descent adopted the "Victorian ideal of womanhood" popular in the United States at this time, propelling many German-Jewish women to engage in charitable Zionist activity despite the general lack of support for Zionism in America earlier in this century. Among this group of bourgeois German-Jewish women involved in American Zionism was a poet, Jessie Ethel Sampter, whose contributions to the movement far exceeded those of the norm. Despite her limited Jewish education and upbringing, and extreme physical limitations, Sampter emerged as a pioneer feminist and Zionist, both in America and in her adopted country, Palestine.

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