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─ Donald Trump’s convention manager Paul Manafort accused Ted Cruz of employing “Gestapo tactics” to recruit delegates to vote for him. Either Manafort doesn’t know anything about the Gestapo or he doesn’t know anything about the Republican Party’s rules regarding the delegate selection process. * Rabbis in Scotland have approved of […]
Humoring the headlines: April 14, 2016 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO─ Since he was busy campaigning in Wisconsin, Donald Trump missed his grandson’s circumcision ceremony. Unnamed sources close to Trump have offered another reason: Trump didn’t want to witness his grandson deshlonged. * Pope Francis issued an apostolic exhortation titled “The Joy of Love” advising Catholic clergy to be more lenient
Humoring the Headlines: April 9, 2016 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO─ Donald Trump backtracked on his call for punishing women who have abortions. He only advocates punishing doctors who perform the procedure, but feels that the women minimally should be forced to wear a Scarlet A on their clothing so pro-life advocates can shun them. * Ted Cruz blamed Donald Trump
Humoring the headlines: April 3, 2016 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireSAN DIEGO — San Diego Jewish World expresses its appreciation to the byliners and staff photographers whose works appeared in March 2016 editions. They included: David Amos Eitan Arom Judy Lash Balint Kenneth Bandler Laurie Baron Amber Bartlett Jeremy Ben-Ami Boaz Bismuth Ronnie Blair Dan Bloom Shoshana Bryen Stephen Bryen Cynthia Citron Richard L. Cravatts Jack Forman
SDJW thanks its March 2016 contributors Read More »
Barry Shaw, Cynthia Citron, Donald H. Harrison, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Eileen Wingard, Eric George Tauber, Eva Trieger, Fred Reiss, EdD, Ira Sharkansky, Lawrence Baron, Mark D. Zimmerman, Melanie Rubin, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, Michael Ordman, Natasha Josefowitz, Sheryl Rowling, Shor M. Masori, Shoshana Bryen, Steve KramerBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO─ The current guttersniping between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump about their wives has descended so far into the bowels of the body politic that CNN plans to broadcast a debate between the two via colonoscope. * Microsoft launched Tay, an Artificial Intelligence robot that posts tweets based on what it
Humoring the headlines: March 25, 2016 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO─ Accusing the protestor who rushed him at a rally of having ties to ISIS, Donald Trump requested that the Department of Homeland Security place all Sanders supporters on the No Fly List and bar their entry back into the United States when returning from other countries. * Bibi Netanyahu rejected
Humoring the headlines: March 18, 2016 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire
The Game of Donopoly By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO─ Directions: Start at Go with a loan of $1,000,000 from your father. Shake dice and roll a three. Go to Trump Village in Brooklyn and advertise that there are no vacancies while renting to African-Americans but not to whites. Roll the dice for a four. Pass
Humoring the headlines: March 12, 2016 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO─ Mitt Romney delivered a speech warning Republicans against electing Donald Trump as their party’s candidate for president. Later at a private dinner for wealthy Republican donors, he was overheard saying: “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for Trump no matter what…who hate the government, who believe
Humoring the Headlines: March 5, 2016 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireSAN DIEGO — This publication would like to thank and express appreciation to the writers and photographers whose works appeared during February 2016 in San Diego Jewish World. They include: Judy Lash Balint Kenneth Bandler Laurie Baron Boaz Bismuth Dan Bloom Shoshana Bryen Stephen Bryen Cynthia Citron Richard L. Cravtts Jack Forman Donald H. Harrison
SDJW thanks its February 2016 contributors Read More »
Barry Shaw, Cynthia Citron, Donald H. Harrison, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Eileen Wingard, Eric George Tauber, Eva Trieger, Fred Reiss, EdD, Lawrence Baron, Mark D. Zimmerman, Melanie Rubin, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, Mimi Pollack, Natasha Josefowitz, San Diego County, Sheryl Rowling, Shoshana Bryen, Steve KramerBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — I’ve been doing research lately on the Oscars. Although I have my favorite films, I realize that my criteria differ from the members of the Academy who not only respond to the merits of the films themselves, but to publicity campaigns waged by the studios, sentimental sympathies for popular
Baron’s picks on the day of Oscar Night Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Theatre, Film & BroadcastBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO─ After his victory in the Nevada caucuses Donald Trump gloated over winning almost every demographic group including the poorly educated. Echoing James Carville’s strategy from the 1992 Clinton campaign, Trump’s campaign manager proclaimed, “It’s the stupid, stupid.” * In a surprise move Chris Christie endorsed Donald Trump for president. The
Humoring the headlines: February 26, 2016 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO─ Things to Say to Donald Trump Supporters when they say: “He’s funding his own campaign and is not beholden to any special interest group.” Whether Donald Trump has ten billion dollars as he boasts, or only four billion as Forbes estimates, he is a special interest group.The corollary to the reasoning that he
Things to say to Donald Trump supporters Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USABy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO─ Within a nanosecond of the news that Antonin Scalia had died in his sleep, Mitch McConnell warned President Obama against nominating a new Supreme Court judge during a presidential election year. Ted Cruz threatened to “absolutely” filibuster any Obama nominee and make the election a referendum on the Supreme Court.
Humoring the headlines: February 15, 2016 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireNew Hampshire Primary Results By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO─ Donald Trump won the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary. In this year’s Republican primaries, nothing succeeds like excess. Trump’s victory inspired Benjamin Netanyahu to reveal plans to build a fence around Israel and get the Arab League to pay for it. * Chris Christie is expected
Humoring the headlines: February 10, 2016 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USA