Lawrence (Laurie) Baron, now retired, served as the Nasatir Professor of Modern Jewish History at San Diego State University. He served from 1988 to 2006 as director of SDSU’s Lipinsky Institute for Judaic Studies. He was the founder in 1995 of the Western Jewish Studies Association.
He writes two satire columns for San Diego Jewish World: “Humoring the Headlines” under his byline, and “Hounding the Headlines,” under the byline of his dog Elona.
Books to his credit, available on Amazon, include:
Projecting the Holocaust into the Present: The Changing Focus of Contemporary Holocaust Cinema
The Modern Jewish Experience in World Cinema
The eclectic anarchism of Erich Muhsam (Men & movements in the history & philosophy of anarchism)
His most recent articles are:
“Making Room for the Jews: The House I Live In (1945),” AJS Perspectives, Summer 2023, 86-88.
“The Revolt of Job: Salvaging the Lost World of Rural Hungarian Hasidim,” Journal of Jewish Identities, 16:1-2 (January/July 2023), 181-198.
“Persistent Parallels, Resistant Particularities: Holocaust Analogies and Avoidance in Armenian Genocide Centennial Cinema, in Armenian and Jewish Experience between Expulsion and Destruction, ed. Sarah M. Ross and Regina Randhofer (Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2021), 267-296.
“The Pioneering American Jewish Women Directors from Elaine May to Claudia Weill,” Jews and Gender (Studies in Jewish Civilization), ed. Leonard Greenspoon (W. Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2021), 217-243.
By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO−Here are some letters of application for the soon-to-be vacated White House Chief of Staff position. Dear President Trump, I can run circles around the Congress. If there are women from your past trying to sully your reputation, I know how to deal with them. I have extensive experience in vetting […]
Humoring the headlines: December 12, 2018 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireWhat might they say at President Trump’s state funeral? By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO−Hearing the eulogies for George H. Bush by a former Canadian Prime Minister, Secretary of State, President, and his biographer, I wondered what their Trump counterparts might say at his funeral. * Former Trump Secretary of State Rex Tillerson: “So often, the
Humoring the headlines: December 7, 2018 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, USABy Laurie Baron The Argentine Tango (tune: Some Enchanted Evening) SAN DIEGO-With world leaders now in Argentina for the G-20 conference, these lyrics came to mind: Some G-20 conference, you may see Vlad Putin You may see Vlad Putin across a crowded room. And somehow he knows, you’d love to speak. But fake news would
Humoring the Headlines ~ December 1, 2018 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireCrown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Thanksgiving By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO−The Crown Prince decided to show how grateful he was to President Trump for defending him against charges of murder by holding a Thanksgiving dinner in the royal palace. He ordered a large “turkey” from Turkey and dispatched a team of master carvers to go
Humoring the headlines: November 24, 2018 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireTrumpy Bear Replaces Smokey the Bear By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO-This week a television advertising campaign started to run on Fox News for Trumpy Bear, a stuffed Grizzly bear who sports a Donald Trump hairpiece and contains an American flag inside his zippered pouch. But this is no toy! After touring the sites of the
Humoring the headlines: November 18, 2018 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — Marvel Comics founder Stan Lee died Monday. As a memorial to him, here’s an excerpt from an article I wrote in 2003 about the first X-Men movie: The creators of the X-Men comic book series belong to the generation of American-born Jews who sought acceptance and social mobility through assimilation.
Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, the Holocaust and X-Men Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Obituaries & memorials, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA
Non-Israelis may sue in Israeli court those who harm them because they are Jews Judge Moshe Drori has ruled in Jerusalem Court that non-Israelis who are harmed because they are Jewish have the standing to sue their attackers in Israeli courts. The ruling came in a case brought by the Shurat HaDin Law Center on
Editor’s E-Mail Box: November 11, 2018 (6 items) Read More »
Jewish Religion, Lawrence Baron, Middle East, San Diego County, USATrump Speak By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO −“Discount” means invalidate absentee and provisional ballots cast in predominantly Democratic precincts. * “Very close to complete victory” means Republicans won the Senate despite receiving 12,000,000 less votes than the Democrats and lost over 30 seats to the Democrats in the House. * “Accosted” means CNN correspondent Jim
Humoring the headlines: November 9, 2018 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireSDJW staff report SAN DIEGO (SDJW) – In synagogues in San Diego and across the country, Jews and their friends answered the call of the American Jewish Committee to “Show Up for Shabbat” to demonstrate just one week after the Pittsburgh massacre that people of good conscience will not be intimidated. Contributors to San Diego
Snippets from ‘Show Up on Shabbat’ weekend Read More »
David Ogul, Donald H. Harrison, Eileen Wingard, Eva Trieger, Jewish Religion, Lawrence Baron, Sheryl RowlingWhy the Jewish Community of Pittsburgh Did Not Want President Trump to Attend the Funerals of the Victims of the Tree of Life Massacre By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO−It expected that he would toss out boxes of Kleenex to the mourners. * It suspected that he intended to recruit minions rather than join a minyan.
Humoring the headlines: October 31, 2018 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USABy Laurie Baron Branches cut from the Tree of Life. Fall like leaves in autumn. Roots remain but sap is bleeding. The Sabbath bride is mourning The lumberjack’s hateful harvest. * Baron is professor emeritus of history at San Diego State University. He may be contacted via lawrence.baron@sdjewishworld.com.
Somber Sabbath (A poem of mourning) Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Lawrence Baron, USADonald Trump on the Stump By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO−“Sadly, it looks like Mexico’s Police and Military are unable to stop the Caravan heading to the Southern Border of the United States. Criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in. Why else would they call it caravan? They disguised its Middle Eastern origins by ditching
Humoring the headlines: October 24, 2018 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireRogues Killed Khashoggi (To the Tune of “I Shot the Sheriff”) By Laurie Baron Rogues killed Khashoggi, but you know it was an accident. Rogues killed Khashoggi, when he became intransigent. Fifteen were sent to interrogate. But he resisted and things escalate. It did not go as required. All of a sudden he
Humoring the headlines: October 20, 2018 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireCSI-Clueless Saudi Investigator By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO−The show opens with a gory scene of fifteen bearded men wearing red and white checkered keffiyehs cinched with black ayals. They are dismembering a bloody corpse with a bone saw inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The camera shifts to the Oval Office of the White House
Humoring the headlines: October 17, 2918 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire