The short biographies here are well- written. But I have a number of quarrels with the selection of the book, and with its title. The phrase 'changed the world' seems to me a bit large when describing the lives of popular entertainers ( Barbra Steisand) fashion designers (Trigano) and minor literary figures (Gertrude Stein). It also seems to me unwise and misleading to select people for such lists whose contribution is to enterprises which are in some way antithetical to Judaism. I find on the list (Miriam of Nazareth) and while it is true that this central figure in Christianity is Jewish , her whole meaning as a person has to do with what is not Jewish. This point seems to me an especially point one at a time when there is a not small group of people in the world who have abandoned the Jewish religion , adopted Christianity, and still ( misleadingly) represent themselves as Jewish.
This work does have a useful list upon which are included many figures who might have made it the list of fifty.