My mother, Miriam Kochan, who has died aged 88, was an inspiring teacher, author and leader in the Oxford Jewish community. She pioneered the ceremony of batmitzvah for girls aged 12 and over in the orthodox Jewish community in the UK. Facing down much resistance from conservative elements, she introduced the ceremony in 1970. It has since become widely established in Oxford and in most synagogues across the country.

Miriam was born in north London to Martin Buchler and Bessie Bradlaw, both children of orthodox rabbis from central and eastern Europe. Her mother died when she was 15 and she cared for her father for the rest of his life.

After gaining a London external degree at the University College of the South West (later Exeter University), she joined Reuters as its first female graduate, something of which she was rightly proud. She was promoted from editorial assistant and gofer to journalist on the commodities desk.

Miriam followed her historian husband, Lionel Kochan (whom she married in 1951), on his academic career, first to Edinburgh in 1959, then to Norwich in 1964. She developed her own literary output, as a translator from French and also as an author. Her translations included Fernand Braudel’s Capitalism and Material Life, 1400-1800 (1973) and the third volume of Léon Poliakov’s The History of Anti-Semitism (1975).

She wrote a number of popular history books of her own including Life in Russia Under Catherine the Great (1969), Prisoners of England (1980) and Britain’s Internees in the Second World War (1983). Miriam was also general editor of the Berg Women’s Series, recruiting a number of distinguished literary friends as writers.

Her educational interest in the Jewish world flowered when our family moved to Oxford in 1969. Shortly after our arrival, she introduced the O-level (and later GCSE) syllabus to the Oxford cheder (Hebrew class). Miriam made learning fun by offering some unusual incentives to students, such as a Mars bar or a KitKat when a prayer had been memorised. She earned not merely the respect of her many pupils over 45 years, but also their huge affection.

She combined educational with organisational roles in the Oxford Jewish community management board, the Bnai Brith and the Women’s International Zionist Organisation. She made a lasting and considerable contribution to Oxford Jewish life but was characteristically very modest about her achievements.

Lionel died in 2005. Miriam is survived by her children, Anna, Benjamin and me, four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.