Which Jewish woman is your International Womens Day heroine?

My heroine is Deborah the Judge, the first woman to lead the entire Jewish people and, to this day, one of only three such women throughout our history (Shlomtzion and Golda Meir are the others,).

She was accessible to the people, she knew how to use her strength when needed, she inspired gender equality and, most importantly, brought peace to Israel for 40 years. We need her today!

Nora Ephron. For being bold, brave, hilarious, and a female writer-director film pioneer.

Fanny Mendelssohn composed hundreds of compositions in her lifetime but, as a female composer, she was never encouraged to take up her composing publicly, even though she was undoubtedly as talented as her more celebrated brother Felix, as well as being an accomplished pianist.

She was driven and gifted — she even wrote her own wedding music the night before the ceremony!

Although she was neglected during her lifetime, her music is receiving due recognition now thanks to CD recordings and more performances of her work. She was a true artist, writing because she had to, living and breathing through her music. She even nursed her family through a cholera epidemic, and then wrote a Cholera Cantata when it was all over.

A true musical heroine in my eyes who defied convention, and is finally starting to get the recognition she deserves.

Queen Esther, of course!

The first recorded winner of a beauty contest, with brilliant courage and diplomacy she persuaded her husband Ahasuerus to come to dinner and with consummate courage saved her people.

What a great queen. What a fantastic woman.

Golda Meir was the first and only woman so far to be prime minister of Israel . Where do I begin to list her achievements?

She raised $50,000,000 to purchase arms for Israel; she was the Jewish woman who got the money to make the state possible.

I love her statement , that being Jewish means, and has always meant, being proud to be part of a people that has maintained its distinct identity for more than 2,000 years, even with all the pain and torment that have been inflicted upon us .

In my own words, you don’t have to be religious to admire Golda Meir, you just have to be proud to be Jewish.

Myra Hess, musician. I first came across her because I am obsessed by an exquisite piece of Bach she transcribed for piano as Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (which I used in the climax of my latest novel, The Lie of the Land), which seems to me to be very much about the irrepressible vigour of life and goodness.

It was one of the 150 pieces she herself played in the 1,300-plus lunch-time concerts she organised during the Second World War in the National Gallery to keep up national morale.

She was a tiny woman, and like many women then and now had some difficulties getting started but won through. Her work introduced many people who had never heard classical music before to some of the greatest works ever composed — many by Germans and Austrians — because art and the love of art is greater than politics. Her courage in playing through air-raids, and her indomitable strength as a pianist make me think of a flame in the dark that refused to be put out.

Trade Unionist Rose Schneiderman (1882-1972), embodied the very best of international trade unionism and coined the phrase “Bread & Roses” in 1912, forever linking the Labour movement to the rose, demanding more for working-class women than the bare necessities — we deserve beauty, too.

She was a political leader and one of my many personal heroines.

My late mother, Dr Freda Freedman, who passed away just before Shavuot last year, inspired me in every way.

She was a doctor who qualified in 1952; practised medicine throughout our childhood and into her seventies; loved speaking Yiddish, chairing the Ladies Guild and being matriarch to her Orthodox Jewish family.

She was a wonderful blend of a high achieving woman (way ahead of her times) and traditional Jewish home-maker.

At her funeral last year she was praised by those attending for going to extraordinary lengths to save lives and for making the best ever holishkes. What better role model can there be than that?

Flora Sassoon (1859-1936). An inspirational woman who, during her lifetime embodied the words of the Mishnah (Avot 1:2) — “The world stands on three things: Torah, the service of God, and kind deeds.”

She was a successful businesswoman and great Torah scholar. She corresponded with the leading rabbis of her time and was involved in innumerable acts of charity and kindness in the Jewish and non-Jewish world.

In April 1924, she was the first woman to address rabbis and students on the Jews’ College speech day. Love of Torah together with humour and cynicism were cleverly woven into an amazing lecture.

It’s impossible this week not to think of the Jewish educator Maureen Kendler (z’l).

She brought an unparalleled depth of knowledge, a love of Judaism and people and a feisty but not fierce feminism that impacted on our community in the widest variety of cross communal spaces.

Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild is the inspiring Jewish woman I wish to honour this IWD. Not only did she barmitzvah my husband - but she 'converted me' to female rabbis in my twenties - as crazy as that sounds.

Having never grown up even meeting a woman rabbi, and a proud feminist in my secular life, Rabbi Rothschild generously and cleverly opened my eyes. I am forever grateful for her friendship, wisdom, wit and kindness. .

Of course, we cannot forget the bravery of Anne Frank and all she endured. If I'm going to pick a modern day Jewish heroine though, I'd probably say Carole King.

She actually is the most successful female songwriter on the UK singles charts between 1952 and 2005, and was always a huge inspiration to me.

But also, importantly, she is now a political activist and someone who I feel is on the right side of history when it comes to speaking out against the most ridiculous POTUS that I can ever remember in my lifetime.

She is still touring and creating. May it continue...