Sarah Sultman accepted a mountainous challenge to mark the batmitzvah of daughter Ella.
The Mill Hill Synagogue member took Ella and 26 other bar- and batmitzvah celebrants to scale England’s third highest peak, Helvellyn in the Lake District, to raise £20,000 for charity.
Mrs Sultman got the idea when chatting to another mum in shul.
“We should have been concentrating on our prayers but we drifted onto the subject of barmitzvahs. We wanted to encourage our kids to do something challenging that would get them off their phones and raise money for people less fortunate.
“When you see the thousands that get spent on the parties and the presents, you really hope your children learn there is more to the process than that.”
Participants selected their own charities and Ella’s choice was Water Aid.
“Before my batmitzvah I watched a really powerful video about how there are people in the world who don’t even have clean water,” she said.
“It is something I had taken for granted. At times I wanted to give up but I kept thinking about why I was doing it.
“As a family we already do a lot of walking and climbing and I find it really fun.”
Organising a trip over Shabbat was problematic. “We took over an entire youth hostel,” Mrs Sultman explained. “It had no en suites, no wifi, no service. We koshered the kitchen.
“It was no small feat but having Shabbat in the mountains was really amazing.”
The seven-hour hike up the mountain started on Sunday morning.
Ilai Amital, 12, whose barmitzvah is in November, took part to raise money for wounded Israeli soldiers.
“I chose to help veterans who have had their lives destroyed,” he said.
“My family are from Israel and I wanted to give back.
“I had never done anything like it before. We had to scramble and use our hands to get up the mountain and at the top it was very narrow.
“It was hard and exhausting but when we were at the top we felt relieved — and I knew I had done something good.”
