Lawrence Baron

Laurie Baron

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.

Humoring the headlines: November 8, 2013

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO―Since the HealthCare.gov website is still not working properly, Kathleen Sebelius is advising single applicants without health insurance to use the eharmony.com dating website in the hope they will meet and marry someone who already has health insurance. Reeling over charges of plagiarism, Senator Rand Paul has accused his critics of […]

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Humoring the headlines: October 30, 2013

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO―Embarrassed over leaks that the NSA monitored German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cell phone, President Obama called her on a secure line to apologize.  The next day he received a briefing from the NSA citing his conversation with Merkel verbatim and reminding him, “Espionage means you never have to say you’re sorry.”

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Humoring the Headlines: October 22, 2013

By Laurie Baron If glitches continue to plague HealthCare.gov, the Affordable Health Care Act is slated to be renamed the Inaccessible Health Care Act. . Dan Snyder, the politically insensitive owner of the Washington Redskins, is considering less offensive names for his team.  Possible alternatives are: The Washington Firewater Drinkers, The Washington Savages, and The

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Humoring the headlines: September 19, 2013

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — As the Republican Party tries to broaden its appeal, it has developed more factions: The Defundamentalists: Republicans who oppose any bill that does not defund Obama Care. The limmigrationists: Republicans who oppose any bill that creates a pathway to citizenship. Deficit Attentionists: Republicans who oppose any bill that raises

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire