OU Rabbi orders Jezebel restaurant to change its name

This restaurant's name wasn’t kosher.

The New York rabbi group that oversees restaurants refused to certify a SoHo eatery specializing in reinvented Jewish fare because its name, Jezebel, refers to a biblical whore.

“Jezebel was an evil person,” Rabbi Moshe Elefant, the head of the Orthodox Union’s kashrut division in charge of Jewish dietary laws, told the Daily News. “It is not appropriate to name a kosher restaurant after her.

“The Talmud [Bible] is clear,” he added. “The basis in Jewish law is that a name has significant influence on who you are, what you are and who you represent.”

The upscale lounge, which newbie restaurateurs Henry Stimler and Menachem Senderowicz opened last July to mixed reviews (the Daily News gave it two stars), now will be called The JSoho to appease the Orthodox Union.

hey’re also nixing any nonmevushal wines — ones that aren’t cooked in high temperatures to purify them from contact with non-Jews — as a second concession to the organization.

Jezebel, as told in the Book of Kings, was a queen who seduced her husband, King Ahab, into worshipping a pagan god over the Jewish God, and who ordered many Jewish prophets killed. Her name is associated with false prophets and promiscuous women.

When the restaurant opened last summer, it embraced its sinful namesake by doling out dishes promising to “dismiss all of your previously held notions about kosher dining.” It featured a clublike environment including plush velvet curtains, supple black leather booths and paintings of Jewish celebrities as historical figures.

The owners initially received kosher certification from Rabbi Ahron Mehlman of Lakewood, N.J.

Now The JSoho’s kitchen hopes to attract more traditional kosher diners turned off by the name and the fancy, uncooked wines.

“We went to the Orthodox Union because we knew that would put everyone’s fears at ease,” Stimler said.

Besides switching to a less offensive name, The JSoho’s owners have also hired a new head chef, general manager, service manager and catering manager.

The Orthodox Union hasn’t ordered the restaurant to redecorate — yet. “We want to make sure there is a certain environment in the restaurant,” Elefant said.

By Nicole Lyn Pesce AND Michael Kaminer / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS