Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has launched his most significant initiative for women by creating a new qualification for them to serve in Orthodox synagogues.

He is introducing the post of "ma'ayan" to enable women to take up roles both as advisers on Jewish law in the area of family purity and more generally as adult educators.

The 18-month, part-time course is the first of its kind in Britain. It is designed to give women a formal position in centrist Orthodox congregations.

Rabbi Mirvis said: "There are large numbers of women in our communities who, for a variety of reasons, feel more comfortable asking a woman for advice or guidance on personal matters and related aspects of Jewish law.

"We have a responsibility to provide for them."

The course, he said, would also provide "an extremely valuable educational resource" for communities.

"We are now working towards a future which could see a ma'ayan in every flourishing Jewish community."

Ma'ayan - meaning "spring" or "fountain" - is a new term, a contraction of the phrase, meirat einayim, "enlightening the eyes" - which is taken from a reference to the Torah by King David in the Psalms.

Jacqui Zinkin, United Synagogue Women co-chair, said the course could produce "an exceptional cadre of women educators who will enrich Jewish knowledge and education, not only for women but for the whole community".

US president Stephen Pack said the programme was "a truly significant development for the US and for the future of UK Jewry".

Three years ago, while at Finchley Synagogue, Rabbi Mirvis was the first US rabbi to appoint a female adviser on family purity. She is known as a yoetzet halachah, adviser on Jewish law, a term pioneered by the Nishmat Institute for women in Israel.

The Chief Rabbi will teach part of the ma'ayan course himself.

Dayan Shmuel Simons of the London Beth Din will lead sessions on Jewish law, while experts from the University College London Institute for Women's Health will deliver the medical topics.

The family purity module will cover issues relating to contraception, miscarriage, abortion and infertility.