Esther
Esther, also known as Hadassah, was a Jewish queen of Persia who saved her people from genocide.
Esther, born Hadassah, was a Jewish orphan raised by her cousin Mordecai in the Persian capital of Susa who became queen when Ahasuerus (Xerxes I, r. 486–465 BCE) chose her as his new queen after deposing Vashti. When the king's vizier Haman plotted to annihilate all Jews in the Persian empire, Mordecai urged Esther to intercede, famously suggesting that she had 'come to the kingdom for such a time as this' (Esther 4:14). At great personal risk, she approached the king uninvited, exposed Haman's conspiracy, and secured an edict allowing Jews to defend themselves. Haman was hanged on the gallows he had built for Mordecai, and the Jewish festival of Purim commemorates this deliverance. The book of Esther is distinctive for never explicitly mentioning God.