WASHINGTON--Mayor Rahm Emanuel flew here from Chicago on Thursday afternoon to celebrate the upcoming bat mitzvah of his daughter, Ilana.

The Emanuel family--wife Amy and three children--remained here to finish the 2011 school year--after Emanuel returned to Chicago in 2010 to run for mayor. The family moved to a rented house across from the National Cathedral here when Emanuel was President Obama's chief of staff.

Ilana's bat mitzvah comes a little over a year after the Emanuel family traveled to Israel in May, 2010, to celebrate the bar mitzvah of his son, Zach, and a nephew.

Emanuel flew in first class on his United flight.