Orthodox Union

Less than a day before the start of Passover, the phone rang at the Brooklyn home of Rabbi Yisroel Belsky. On the line were concerned members of the Rabbinical Council of California, a rabbinical association in Los Angeles that provides kosher certification, among other services.

An owner of the restaurant formerly known as Jezebel says the idea to ditch the biblical troublemaker’s name was decided before the Orthodox Union took over kosher certification last week.

There are two resolutions up for proposal at the two-day annual policy plenum of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), starting Sunday in Washington, D.C. One advocates for fair pay, and the other for gun control. But the talk among the delegates will be about a third resolution that won’t be on the agenda.

Jezebel is history.

The Queen of Israel who built temples to pagan gods and led her husband, King Ahab, astray will no longer receive tribute in the form of a kosher eatery in downtown Manhattan that bears her sinful name.

The Orthodox Union has set a March date to pick its next president in a highly unusual contested vote.

Who’s running the show at the Orthodox Union these days?

For the first time in his more than two decades at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Ethan Felson has been seeing an issue presented, and a consensus reached, in a matter of hours, not days.

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