Houston, TX

City overview

Houston's Orthodox community lives in Southwest Houston, along Brays Bayou. The shuls, mikvaot and day schools sit in Meyerland, Willow Meadows, Westbury and the Fondren Road corridor known as Brays Oaks, with the small city of Bellaire to the north and West University Place a short drive east. The Chabad Lubavitch Center on Fondren Road, home to a daily minyan, a day school and a mikveh, and United Orthodox Synagogues on Greenwillow Street in Willow Meadows are two of its main institutions. Kosher food runs along a handful of streets: South Braeswood Boulevard, Fondren Road, Hillcroft Avenue and Beechnut Street in the Meyerland and Brays Oaks area, plus Bissonnet Street and Bellaire Boulevard in Bellaire. Two agencies certify locally, the Houston Kashruth Association (HKA) and Mehadrin Kashrus of Texas (MKT), and the H-E-B supermarket on Beechnut Street carries an in-store kosher section under their symbols. Distances are bigger than they look on a map. The community covers several miles, so the shul you plan to walk to on Shabbos should decide where you stay. On weekdays almost every visitor drives.