Ahmad Austin Jr.Apr 17th, 2026, 11:23 am

The former Acting Director of the Kennedy Center reportedly threatened to rename the historic Israel Lounge at an October 7 event.

In a column published Thursday in The Atlantic, Josef Palermo — the Kennedy Center’s first curator of visual arts and special programming — detailed the institution’s tumultuous transition under President Donald Trump.

Palermo was laid off on March 26 despite assurances that he and others would at least hold their jobs until the center’s shutdown for renovations in July.

According to the former curator, a major “red flag” he noticed was the new leadership’s decision to effectively “sell sponsorships” for the Kennedy Center’s various lounges. The Israeli Lounge, Palermo noted, was paid for by the Israeli government to “celebrate the connection between Judaism and music.”

At an event recognizing the anniversary of the October 7 attacks in Israel, former Acting Director Richard Grenell allegedly threatened to rename the lounge if donors didn’t help fund the upcoming renovations. Palermo added:

Last fall, I organized an exhibition commemorating the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks in the Israeli Lounge, featuring the paintings of an American Israeli artist. Speaking at the opening reception, Grenell warned the mostly Jewish audience that unless donors came forward to sponsor the space and pay for renovation costs, the lounge would be given away to a new donor. “It certainly would be a shame if we lost this room to a corporation or an individual and it was no longer the [Israeli] lounge,” he said. Such a strong-armed fundraising pitch, at an event commemorating a pogrom, struck many of us in the room as inappropriate. I was mortified.

Other lounges suffered that exact fate. The Circles Lounge, Palermo noted, has been renamed the SyberJet Lounge. The CEO of SyberJet was pardoned by Trump after being convicted of fraud.

Grenell did not respond to requests for comments by The Atlantic.

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