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 — President Obama has asked for congressional authorization to conduct a limited military strike against Syria. He realizes that time is of the essence because the strike must be launched before the House Republicans shut down the government rather than increase the debt limit. Other members of the House […]
Humoring the headlines: September 6, 2013 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron The Attorney General of New York has filed a 40 million dollar lawsuit against Donald Trump University for promoting itself as a real university. An inquiry into the Pass/Fail grading system revealed that P stood for profit maker and F for fired. The Attorney General has questioned whether Gary Busey was qualified
Humoring the Headlines: August 30, 2013 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO– Russia has approached the United States about transferring Chelsea (Bradley) Manning to Russian custody. It urged the United States to drop the 35 year sentence against him for leaking classified documents in return for Russia imposing a hefty fine and jailing him for a year for promoting a transgender lifestyle.
Humoring the Headlines: August 27, 2013 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, USABy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — Although I usually review films that deal with Jewish themes, I’m devoting this week’s column to The Butler (the director’s name was added to the title because Warner Brothers sued over copyright infringement of a silent movie entitled The Butler) because it has been the number one box-office
The Wandering Review: “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” Read More »
Lawrence BaronBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO– In a poll of likely Republican primary voters in Louisiana, 29 percent blamed President Obama for the poor federal response to Hurricane Katrina; whereas 28 % blamed Bush even though Bush was the president back in 2005 and Obama was only a senator. As Winston Churchill once said, “The best
Humoring the Headlines: August 22, 2013 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, USABy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — After enacting its ban on the promotion of homosexuality, Russia is defying demands to change its policy or face a boycott of the upcoming Winter Olympics there. Putin has dug his heels in and renamed St. Petersburg St. Burg because the mere mention of peters is too homosexually
Humoring the headlines: August 20, 2013 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, USABy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — President Obama denounced the violent repression of Muslim Brotherhood protestors in Egypt by the military government. Fearing that new democratic elections might bring the Muslim Brotherhood back to power, he suggested that new elections be monitored by the North Carolina Electoral Board to guarantee that a wealthy white Christian
Humoring the headlines: August 15,2013 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, USABy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — Israel announced two contradictory policies on the eve of the second round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. It will release a group of Palestinian prisoners as a good will gesture, and build more settlements on the West Bank as a bad will gesture. As a compromise, the PLA demanded
Humoring the Headlines: August 12, 2013 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, USABy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — Between his therapy sessions, San Diego Mayor Bob Filner phoned Alex Rodriguez to get advice on how to delay disciplinary action for the duration of a contract and how to get past first base and not strike out. Commenting on the difficulties of restarting peace talks between Israel and
Humoring the headlines: August 7, 2013 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, USABy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — A poll of New Yorkers has selected Eliot Spitzer as the formerly tarnished politician most likely to succeed. When asked why, they said he waited five years to run for office again and never put any of his indiscretions on YouTube. In a related story, Anthony Weiner told
Humoring the headlines: August 5, 2013 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, USABy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — Anthony Wiener is reportedly considering withdrawing from the New York’s mayoral race. He has been negotiating with Oskar Mayer to become the chauffeur of their trademark vehicle. He’s also changing his name to Felix Frankfurter. Robert Filner, the embattled mayor of San Diego, is also contemplating a job change.
Humoring the headlines: August 1, 2013 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, USABy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — Adapted from Yasmina Khadra’s novel, The Attack deftly navigates the shoals of the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict. In an understated but convincing performance, Ali Suliman portrays Amin, an Israeli Arab surgeon who has achieved full integration into Israeli society. The film opens with him receiving a prestigious award from his Israeli
The Wandering Review: ‘The Attack’ Read More »
Lawrence BaronBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO –Fifty years after its publication, Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem continues to polarize public discourse. Margarethe von Trotta’s thought provoking but flawed film rekindles the fiery debates over Arendt’s characterization of Eichmann as a dutiful bureaucrat and her charge that the Jewish Councils abetted the Holocaust by complying with German
The Wandering Review: ‘Hannah Arendt’ Read More »
Lawrence BaronBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — The Z in the latest summer blockbuster World War Z stands for zombies, but bloggers on the Aljazeera English website claim the Z stands for Zionist propaganda. On the other hand, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Bloomberg View calls the movie “’the most pro-Israel movie ever made. Or at
The Wandering Review: ‘World War Z’ Read More »
Lawrence Baron