Today is International Woman’s Day. The theme for this year is gender parity, but as in previous years, IWD celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements and contributions of women around the world and throughout history.
When I think of great, inspirational Jewish women, my list is varied. A quick straw poll of my female editorial colleagues resulted in this list, including a prime minister, an author, a singer and cook.
Who would you add to our list of the top ten Jewish women in history?
Golda Meir : Israel’s fourth prime minister, she was the first woman to be elected leader of Israel. Known as “the only man in the cabinet”, Meir was Minister of Labour and Foreign Minister for the Labour party before coming out of retirement in 1969 - at the age of 70 - to lead Israel as Prime Minister.
Anne Frank : Diarist and optimist, whose story, The Diary of Anne Frank, is one of the most widely read books in the world. Everyone has heard of Anne Frank, the brave young girl who spent two years hiding from the Nazis and writing her diary in a secret annex in the attic of a house in Amsterdam. She was transported to Bergen-Belsen and died just weeks before the camp was liberated.
Carole King: The singer-songwriter has recently been honoured in an award-winning Broadway and West End musical; unsurprising for someone who was “the most successful female songwriter on the UK singles charts between 1952 and 2005”. Responsible for more than two dozen chart hits since the 1960s, King is famous for being part of a song-writing duo with her husband Gerry Goffin and for being a solo performing artist. You Make Me Feel (Like a Natural Woman), You’ve Got a Friend, Let’s Do the Locomotion and Up on the Roof are among a few of her hits.
Nigella Lawson: One of Britain’s most famous cooks makes the list for her enthusiastic, verbose descriptions of food and her midnight cake cravings. Not one to subscribe to stereotypes – or run away from them - she once said of feminism: “Women of my generation were keen – rightly – not to be tied to the stove, but the ramifications of this were that they felt a sense of dread in the kitchen. How can this be good for anyone? I also feel that to denigrate any activity because it has traditionally been associated with the female sphere is in itself anti-feminist.”
Sheryl Sandberg: The COO of Facebook. is famous for encouraging women to “lean in”, and surely demands a mention just because that has to sum up IWD’s campaign for gender parity.
Natalie Portman: The Israeli-American, Oscar-winning actress is an animal rights activist and ambassador of the charity Free the Children. She apparently danced 111 out of 139 punishing ballet scenes in the critically acclaimed film Black Swan and also deserves a mention for naming her son Aleph.
Joan Rivers: The American comedian needs to be included thanks to her dry sense of humour and notorious quotability: “I don’t exercise. If God had wanted me to bend over, he would have put diamonds on the floor.”
Judith Kerr : The author of books read by generations of children, including When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, The Tiger Who Came to Tea and the Mog series, is still working. She fled the Nazis as a child, made a life in Britain, and is still writing and illustrating new books and working as an inspirational speaker in her 90s.
Hannah Senesh: The paratrooper was trained to rescue Jews during the Holocaust. She was captured, tortured and killed by the Nazis when she refused to give details of her latest rescue mission and is regarded as a national heroine in Israel.
Evelyn Rose: The cookery writer must make the list because every Jewish household has one of her recipe books and her recipes are passed down from generation to generation of amazing Jewish women.
And let’s not forget the great Jewish women from the bible. One male suggested Ruth, who is described as being “a woman of noble character” and was the matriarch of the line that led to King David. There’s also (the possibly better-known) Deborah, Miriam, Rachel and Leah.
When I Googled ‘famous Jewish women’ the first two search results were The Official Ranking Of The 45 Hottest Jewish Women In Hollywood and The 20 Cutest Jewish Women in Hollywood.
Granted, I took longer to compile this list than Google’s 0.42 seconds, and this isn’t an #everydaysexism rant decrying listlicles about attractive Jewish women. But as the list above shows, that’s not all we are.
And isn’t that what IWD is celebrating? That women can do and be whatever they want now and should be celebrated for their achievements - whether it’s as a singer, a comedian, an author, a prime minister or a hero.
I’m sure there are many notable Jewish women I haven’t mentioned – so please let me know on Twitter or in the comments on our Facebook page.
