During World War II, he worked on installing and debugging US equipment at a steel mill in Siberia while it was under construction.

His mathematical equations were used in forecasting supply and demand for vital materials like steel, or allocating scarce resources.

In 1977, a letter was published in the Soviet newspaper Izvestiya calling Lerner "the leader of an espionage nest."

His closest associates in the refusenik movement — Natan Sharansky, Vladimir Slepak and Ida Nudel — were arrested.

[4] He was finally granted an exit permit and emigrated to Israel on 27 January 1988, after 16 years of harassment by the KGB, together with his son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter.