This paper analyses the socio-historical context of a transnational dialogue on social work between Germany and Mandatory Palestine during the first half of the 20th century. Against the backdrop of the story of Dr Mirjam Hoffert, the article reveals the unique, complex, and contradictory translation of the Jewish-German approach toward social work into the social context of Mandatory Palestine. Although Hoffert and other protagonists faced many challenges in Germany, the complex mission of establishing a new (female) profession in the Yishuv confronted them with new and different conflicts and struggles that they ultimately resolved.