Who is the most favourite influential woman?

Who is the most favourite influential London woman of the past century?

This was a question posed to the readers of the Metro Newspaper this last week. Was it Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of this country, or Emmeline Pankhurst; leader of the suffragette movement, or some other inspirational lady leader?

No. It was Leona Lewis.

Readers of this blog are probably wondering who is Leona Lewis? I had never heard of her. And no- she’s not to be confused with Leonnie Lewis of United synagogue fame. Actually that would have been quite a good choice; Leonnie deserves an accolade for her fine communal work.

Leona Lewis, the one who won the title of most influential woman, is a twenty five year old pop star from Hackney. I found that out from my sixteen year old daughter.

Well, to give her a little slack, she does do a lot of charitable work, and she has had a few hit singles, and she’s very popular in America. And it’s not as if I have anything against pop stars per se. That’s her job and she does make a lot of money. But that doesn’t make her the most influential woman of the past century. Or does it?

Judging also from the figures of the finalists it doesn’t make all that much sense. Leona got 70% of the vote. Coming in a far-away second place was Margaret Thatcher with 5% of the vote. It seems a bit strange that one person should get such a high percentage of the vote, yet most normal people haven’t even heard of her.

So where am I going on this?

There are two ways of looking at this:

Either readers of The Metro Newspaper or readers who respond to dumb polls are pretty dumb-

Or, it was all a set up, in other words all her fans were motivated by twitter or Facebook by a sudden urge to vote for her.

Whatever way I look at it, it all seems a bit glum. We live in a very sad world if we are unable to find any better role models than our celebrities or pop stars and not real people who have given their lives for a cause higher than themselves.

So, from a Jewish perspective; who is the most influential Jewish woman in London of the past century?

Well in my opinion it will have to be the late Lady Jacobovitz.(pictured above). A great lady, a marvellous role model , an inspiration to many, who supported dozens of charities and is missed by all.

And on a personal level there’s always My Rebbetzin; her delicious chicken soup, a great mum, wonderful wife. Well done Yehudit!! : )