When a British reporter emailed Tina Lerno, a librarian for the Los Angeles Public Library, on Monday asking if she had a comment about being named in a lawsuit against the city over its cancellation of a “Read Palestine Week” event, that was the first she heard of the suit.
“I started having a panic attack,” she told JNS. “I went on a walk. I didn’t feel much better. I sat down at my desk and started crying.”
Lerno, who chairs the library’s Jewish Affinity Group, shared the query with JNS.
The reporter informed that she’s named in the suit, which JNS could not confirm, that quotes an email that she sent to library administrators in which she said that authors who were invited to the event have “strong terrorist ties” and “virulently antisemitic views.”
In April, the Los Angeles Public Press published an article about the cancellation. The publication didn’t name people, but Lerno told JNS that one of the canceled authors mentioned her by name on social media and blamed her, in part, for the cancellation of the event.
After her name was revealed, people began calling her a “whiny Zionist” online, Lerno told JNS.
She made her Facebook and Instagram accounts private and deleted her Threads account.
“I’m worried that something is going to happen,” she told JNS.
“It’s so stressful, and I just feel like I can’t believe that somebody can do this to me, to the city and there’s no repercussion,” she said.
