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.

Satire: Dictionary of Select Committee Testimony

By Laurie Baron Partisan Witch Hunt=The committee consisting of 6 Democrats and 2 Republicans formed after Kevin McCarthy rejected a proposal for a committee that would have had equal representation for both parties.  Also look under self-fulfilling prophecy. Premature Tabulation=Claiming victory before all the votes are counted.  Also look under slogan “Stop the Real.” A […]

Satire: Dictionary of Select Committee Testimony Read More »

Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Screening American Jewish Diversity

Helene Meyer’s book Movie-Made Jews explores how films mirror and shape the diverse identities embraced by contemporary American Jewry.  Readers of the Jewish feminist magazine Lilith and the Jewish Women’s Archive Blog will be familiar with Meyers’ insightful movie reviews. Here on a bigger canvas, she analyzes documentaries and feature films that venture beyond common cinematic stereotypes of American Jews to dramatize their attitudes towards antisemitism, assimilation, feminism, gender orientation, the Holocaust, Jewish assertiveness, and race relations. [Laurie Baron, Ph.D]

Screening American Jewish Diversity Read More »

Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, Lawrence Baron, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Uvalde Ricochets

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — I suspect Vladimir Putin of planning the mass shooting in Uvalde to overshadow news coverage of the war in Ukraine. The Texas legislature is considering a bill to arm fetuses with tiny Derringers. It plans to drum up popular support for the measure with the slogan, “The only thing

Uvalde Ricochets Read More »

Lawrence Baron, Opinion, USA

Guns and Poses: Reflections on the Uvalde Shooting

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — There’s a national gun crisis when: The NRA has more influence than the PTA. Russia’s bombing of markets and schools generates bipartisan cooperation on aiding Ukraine, whereas domestic massacres result in partisan polarization over common sense gun regulation. You can purchase a rifle privately without a background check when

Guns and Poses: Reflections on the Uvalde Shooting Read More »

Lawrence Baron, Opinion, USA

Satire: The Threat From Without (and Within)

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — Congress is holding its first hearing on Unidentified Flying Objects in over fifty years, but the UFO (Uncompromising Fascistic Oath-Breakers) Caucus is intent on exposing the radical agenda pursued by extraterrestrials. Here’ s a preview of their questions and comments: Marjorie Taylor Greene: Am I mistaken, or did I

Satire: The Threat From Without (and Within) Read More »

Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire