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.
“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.
In technology similar to that seen at such presidential museums as the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, the Schindler family has preserved the memory of the late Holocaust survivor Rose Schindler by creating a hologram of her that can answer questions from students or other audience members. [SDJW staff]
The movie viscerally reenacts the wrenching of Edgardo from his home, the anguish it caused his family, and the divisions it created among Italian Jewish leaders who worried that overt protests would jeopardize their already precarious position in the Papal States. [Laurie Baron]
The animated feature film Charlotte chronicles the unfolding of her personal and creative development in Berlin between 1933 and 1939 and her temporary haven in France thereafter. While its emphasis remains on her autobiography, the dangers posed by Nazi antisemitism loom in the background with a few paintings depicting a Nazi rally, her expulsion from the Academy of Arts on racial grounds, Kristallnacht, and her father’s return as a physically broken man from being interned at Sachsenhausen after the Nazi rampage in 1938. [Laurie Baron]
Fearful that the Emmy Award Show would detract from coverage of his Iowa Caucus victory, Donald Trump created his own TV awards show to compete with it based on fictitious programs with the same titles as Emmy winners so viewers would not realize they weren’t watching the real Emmies ceremony. [Satire by Laurie Baron]
If the de la Torre’s statement can be construed as “hateful and divisive,” then university presidents must avoid any future backlash by using the following template: [Laurie Baron]
On three upcoming Thursdays — Jan. 25, March 21, May 23 – the “Shabbat market” will be held from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. outside the Lawrence Family JCC in the areas known as the Jerri-Ann & Gary Jacobs Family Harmony Village, Hannah & Mark Glieberman Playground, and the Sharon & David Wax Family Pavilion. [SDJW staff report]
By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO – Laughing to keep from crying, here’s a look back at 2023: January My Blue Kevin (Melody: My Blue Heaven) The GOP votes multiple times. ‘Cause the crazies reject blue Kevin. Turn to the right, the extreme MAGA right Will make him the blue, blue Kevin. He bargained away, whatever
By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — While most Christians were wishing everyone goodwill and peace, Donald Trump posted the following message on Truth Social (which really should be renamed Truth Antisocial): “Merry Christmas to all, including Crooked Joe Biden’s ONLY HOPE, Deranged Jack Smith, the out-of-control Lunatic who just hired outside attorneys, fresh from the
By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — A Brooklyn man was convicted of robbing a matzah factory. He was sentenced to eight years in Unleavenworth. Donald Trump denied charges that he had read Mein Kampf or plagiarized from Hitler when he declared that migrants were poisoning the blood of the United States. He reminded his MAGA
By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — Wandering in my neighborhood, I sometimes wonder what the meaning of the Christmas lawn and house decorations I pass is. One family in my neighborhood erected a 12-foot-tall menacing-looking skeleton for Halloween. Rather than dismantle it, they placed a Santa’s hat on its skull for Christmas. If I were
By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — It is considered a mitzvah to place a menorah in a home’s window to publicize the miracle of the oil burning for 8 days. In the wake of the October 7th massacres and kidnappings, Jewish organizations advocate doing this to indicate support for Israel. Given the current polarization over
By Elona Baron as Barked to Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — When your human is Jewish, you observe Hanukkah. Most Jews don’t know about the Book of Maccabeagles who attacked the Seleucids. They were the first to coin the acronym MAGA (Maccabeagles Against Greek Aggressors). Jewish dogs love latkes being tossed at them because they
By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — Thanksgiving brings families together, but arguments about current events break them up. This year Jewish families will face this combustible situation as relatives sympathetic with the plight of Gazan civilians come face to face with their Stand With Us kin. Here are some suggestions to avoid the meal from
By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — The House Ethics Committee has determined that there is “overwhelming evidence” that George Santos is guilty of lawbreaking and “cannot be trusted.” His offenses include improper use of campaign donations for personal luxury purchases and reporting fictitious loans to attract more donations. It did not help his case that
