Let’s analyze using a current item from the Forward:
The Jewish Week reports that the hip, super-stylish Soho restaurant is being made to undergo a rebranding as a result of its seeking kosher certification from the OU. Paying homage to a 9th century B.C.E. queen of ancient Israel who built temples to pagan gods and negatively influenced her husband King Ahab, may have worked until now. After all, the restaurant touted its “decadent” atmosphere on its website.
But now that it has decided to try to attract more traditional kosher diners, Jezebel is being thrown out (though perhaps not as violently as the actual biblical queen was).
“We felt the name Jezebel does not represent a person who has a positive reputation in the Tanach [Bible] and was not a name we want to promote,” said Rabbi Moshe Elefant, the head of the OU’s kashrut division. Notably, this is the first time that the OU has insisted on the renaming of a restaurant.
It sounds like the OU rabbis don’t want their own brand to be harmed. And perhaps something else here was left unarticulated. The name-change is about ensuring the owners (previously touting their establishment’s “decadent” atmosphere) have the right mindset (like how potential Jewish converts are made to move, etc., etc.).
In general, private organizations should be allowed to discriminate, fire customers at whim, or make demands, just like their customers do to them, and let the market decide who wins and who loses. But of course, the modern State’s “laws” are always purposely biased toward any then-existing institutions in many ways, so…