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: Diversity Donald’s Virtuous Venues 

In the wake of the George Floyd protests, Donald Trump claimed he had “done more for the black community than any president since Abraham Lincoln.”  Hypersensitive to the charge of being a bigot, he has carefully selected venues for upcoming rallies to symbolize his commitment to ethnic and racial justice.  This is why he scheduled one for Tulsa on June 19th to commemorate the Juneteenth celebration of the end of slavery in the city where America’s worst race riot occurred.  Here’s  a possible campaign calendar for future campaign events targeted at ethnic and racial minorities. [Satire by Laurie Baron]

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USA

Stalking brazen bunnies during the pandemic

Ever since the pandemic began, I have noticed rabbits congregating in increasing numbers behind the fence surrounding the school playground in my neighborhood.  As a hound with a primordial instinct to hunt and kill rabbits, I slowly freeze into my stalking position and then tug on the lease to let my owner know I’m ready to chase and pounce on them.  I never get that far because the school has been closed and the gate to the playground is locked.  [Elona Baron as told to Laurie Baron]

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Who were the Righteous Gentiles?

It was as Lawrence Baron, the distinguished history professor, rather than as Laurie Baron, the brilliant satirist, for whom women and some men gathered for a Zoom presentation on Tuesday sponsored by Tifereth Israel Synagogue’s Sisterhood.  They asked him to evaluate the factors that led some non-Jews during the time of Hitler to risk their lives and those of their families to protect Jews from the genocide.  Who, indeed, were the people who have become known in history as “The Righteous Gentiles”? [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Lawrence Baron, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA