{"id":453283,"date":"2026-10-01T15:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T15:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/453283\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T15:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T15:38:09","slug":"emanu-el-celebrates-sukkot-in-new-katz-family-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/453283\/","title":{"rendered":"Emanu El celebrates Sukkot in new Katz Family Center"},"content":{"rendered":"


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At right: Rabbis Oren Hayon, Pam Silk and Josh Fixler and Cantor Rollin Simmons lead Sukkot services. photos by JHV: DANIEL BISSONNET<\/p>\n


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By DANIEL BISSONNET | For the JHV\u2022<\/p>\n

Thu, Oct 1, 2026<\/p>\n

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Congregation Emanu El members and guests celebrated Sukkot with its signature \u201cSukkot on Sunset\u201d on Sept. 27. Having begun in 2014, the event this year was held in a brand-new venue, the Jerold B. Katz Family Center for Jewish Learning. <\/p>\n

The Center was opened just before Rosh Hashanah. The 25,000-square-foot, two-story expansion features modern classrooms, improved accessibility and enhanced security.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Josh Fixler was enthusiastic about celebrating Sukkot inside the new space.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is exciting for everyone to be in our sukkah that is finally in the place it was always meant to be. Everyone is enjoying the open space in the courtyard and the warm feeling of community.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, Sukkot on Sunset was fashioned as a block party. People had a chance to walk around the first floor enjoying different activities in different spaces. Feld Hall also was home to dozens of children enjoying their favorite inflatables, including a Paw Patrol bounce house.<\/p>\n

The afternoon began with services in the sukkah in the newly landscaped central courtyard. After services, everyone went inside to have a burger and fixin\u2019s lunch, provided by Houston Catering Concepts, and dessert by Phrostbite Italian Ice.<\/p>\n

As part of the celebration, children made giant bubbles and had their faces painted. Parents and children sat for a caricature artist.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a successful High Holiday season, I am really excited that Sukkot on Sunset is here for our community to enjoy all the activities we have planned,\u201d said Ali Bamburger, Emanu El\u2019s new Membership and Engagement associate. \u201cBeryl Chernow, our executive director, and Alison Hail, our programming and engagement associate, have helped me ramp up on my new job and were a delight to work with as we planned and implemented this event.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At right: Rabbis Oren Hayon, Pam Silk and Josh Fixler and Cantor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57,116482,31274,116481,116480,116479,12008,27],"class_list":["post-453283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-houston-synagogues","tag-jewish","tag-jewish-herald-voice","tag-jewish-news","tag-jhv","tag-newspaper","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}