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-Lebron James has decided to return to Cleveland and play for the Cavaliers. Inspired by James’ change of heart, Edward Snowden plans to return to the United States and work for the CIA. * Israeli Civilian Prayer: Adonai, please keep my home safe from missiles. Palestinian Civilian Prayer: Allah, please keep […]
Humoring the headlines: July 13, 2014 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO-Torah lessons: Deuteronomy XIX: 21 “And your eye shall not pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” In other words, you can’t kill someone for a murder or murders he or she did not commit. Deuteronomy XXV: 1-2: “If there be
Humoring the headlines: July 7, 2014 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireHumoring the Headlines By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO- ISIS declared that one objective of the Islamic State it has established is to overthrow Barack Obama. John Boehner and Mitch McConnell have contacted ISIS about coordinating their efforts. * Customers have complained about Walmart selling posters of the infamous Dachau gate which bore the slogan
Humoring the Headlines: July 3, 2014 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron The New Inscription for the Statue of Liberty (with apologies to Emma Lazarus) Unlike the harbor Lady with upright flame, Extending arms to seekers of haven. Pandering politicians willingly cave in, Turn children back without shame. Excuse themselves and find others to blame. To get elected and then block any change. Douse
Humoring the Headlines: June 29, 2014 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USABy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO―In a unanimous decision the Supreme Court ruled that police cannot routinely confiscate cell phones and use the information found on them as evidence in criminal cases without first obtaining a search warrant. Law enforcement officials have denounced the decision even though the NSA has assured them it already has a
Humoring the Headlines: June 27, 2014 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO-President Obama dispatched 300 military advisors to Iraq to bolster the Maliki government. When Obama’s press secretary was asked what the advisors will be doing, he replied they will be advising Iraqi soldiers which on-line courses to take to learn what real soldiers do in combat. * Pope Francis excommunicated all
Humoring the Headlines: June 23, 2014 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron After establishing a reputation as an actor and director in avant-garde theatre, the Chilean-born Alejandro Jodorowsky burst onto the cinematic scene in 1970 with his surrealistic western El Topo. Since it prefigures the preoccupations of his subsequent films including The Dance of Reality, let me summarize its plot. A gunfighter abandons his
The Wandering Review: The Dance of Reality Read More »
International, Lawrence BaronSAN DIEGO (SDJW) — San Diego Jewish World‘s movie reviewer and humor columnist, Lawrence Baron, a professor emeritus of history at San Diego State University, will deliver three summer lectures on Jewish movies at Temple Emanu-El, 6299 Capril Drive, with the first coming at 7 p.m. tonight (Saturday, June 21), and the others scheduled on
Baron lectures tonight on ‘Jews and Baseball’ Read More »
Lawrence Baron, San Diego County, Sports & CompetitionsBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO―The United States captured Abu Khattala, the alleged leader of the attack on the American embassy in Benghazi. Although the Obama administration plans to try him in a federal court, many Republicans advocate sending him to Guantanamo. After all, nothing epitomizes American justice better than a military commission held in secret
Humoring the headlines: June 19, 2014 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO―Rick Perry recently asserted, “I may have the genetic coding that I’m inclined to be an alcoholic, but I have the desire not to do that, and I look at the homosexual issue the same way.” In other words not indulging an addiction to alcohol and a sexual attraction to members
Humoring the Headlines: June 16, 2014 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO―A California Superior Court ruled that tenure for public school teachers is illegal because it denies students access to quality education by guaranteeing tenured teachers their positions despite their teaching records. Will federal judges recuse themselves from hearing subsequent appeals of the case because they all hold lifetime appointments? *
Humoring the Headlines: June 13, 2014 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — To retaliate against American economic sanctions, Russia has banned American astronauts from using the International Space Station starting in 2020. The United States reacted by announcing that it plans to complete the construction of an International Space Walmart by that year and that the store will refuse to accept
Humoring the Headlines: June 9, 2014 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO―Eric Shinseki tendered his resignation after weeks of revelations about lengthy waits for appointments at VA hospitals for returning veterans, some of whom died before they could be seen. The problem was discovered when insurance actuarial tables revealed that the mortality rate for injured soldiers in Afghanistan was lower than for
Humoring the Headlines: May 30, 2014 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO-The exquisite black and white cinematography of Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida mesmerizes audiences. Each meticulously composed and highly textured frame enhances the film’s acting, dialogue, and moments of silence. They capture the bleakness of communist Poland in the 1960s and the psychological turmoil gnawing at the souls of the novitiate nun Anna
The Wandering Review: ‘Ida’ Read More »
Jewish History, Lawrence Baron