Rabbi Dr Jackie Tabick and Rabbi Charley Baginsky were among 150 pioneering women honoured at an International Women’s Day event held inside 10 Downing Street.

Hosted by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Chancellor Rachel Reeves, guests included groundbreakers from the worlds of TV, film, sport, music, law, religion, public service and more.

Rachel Reeves and Rabbi Charley Baginsky

Rabbi Charley said: “It was a true honour to celebrate International Women’s Day at 10 Downing Street, especially as I was in the company of Jackie – a true role model and our very own first woman rabbi.”

All those invited had achieved a first in their field. Rabbi Jackie made British history was she ordained 50 years ago.

Among Rabbi Charley’s achievements, she was the first woman to light London’s Chanukah Menorah.

Rachel Reeves – who is the first woman to hold the role of Chancellor in its 800-year history – said: “I think I probably speak for everybody here that being a first also comes with a big responsibility as well.

“A responsibility in a way, to show that it can be done, because you’re doing it not just for yourself, but to show everybody it can be done.”

Rabbi Dr Jackie Tabick (centre) and Rabbi Charley Baginsky (right) with other faith leaders at No10

A brief history of firsts and gender equality in Progressive Judaism:

1845 – The Reform Congregation of Berlin abolishes the separate women’s gallery in the synagogue and the mechitza (partition) between men and women.

1851 – Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise introduces ‘family pews’ – ie the now universal Progressive practice of everyone sitting together – to Congregation Beth-El of Albany, New York.

1902 – Lily Montagu becomes the first woman to start a Jewish movement, as she (along with Claude Montefiore and others) founds Liberal Judaism in the UK.

1935 – Rabbi Regina Jonas is ordained as the world’s first woman rabbi. Her 1930 thesis was on the biblical and historical examples of women teaching and arbitrating Jewish law.

1975 – Rabbi Dr Jackie Tabick becomes Britain’s first woman rabbi – ordained by Leo Baeck College and serving West London Synagogue. She has since taught and inspired many to follow her path.

1977 – Baroness Rabbi Julia Neuberger, the UK’s second ordained woman rabbi, becomes the first to take sole lead of a British synagogue – The South London Liberal Synagogue.

2011 – Rabbi Janner-Klausner becomes Britain’s first female head of faith, when she is appointed as Senior Rabbi of the Movement for Reform Judaism.

2011 – Rabbi Professor Deborah Kahn-Harris becomes the first woman to lead a Rabbinic Seminary within the World Union for Progressive Judaism, when she is appointed Principal of Leo Baeck College.

2025 – Today 50% of our UK Progressive clergy are women and services in all of our 80+ congregations are fully egalitarian.