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: September 1, 2016

  By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO─ While Donald Trump was purportedly softening, Anthony Weiner was hardening.  Trump insinuated that Weiner’s compulsive sexting cast suspicion on Hillary’s judgment because Weiner might have been reading classified information allegedly sent by Hillary to his wife Huma Abedin.  Alternative explanations are that Weiner is just a schmuck or that […]

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Humoring the Headlines: July 27, 2016

Day two of the Democratic National Convention By Laurie Baron The Democratic National Convention has featured Andra Day, Alicia Keys, Meryl Streep, Sarah Silverman, and Paul Simon among other famous entertainers.  Ticketmaster is currently negotiating with the Democrats to take this show on the road under the name Politpaloosa. * Congressman Joseph Crowley accused Donald

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USA

Humoring the headlines: July 22, 2016

The Republican National Convention Wrap Up By Laurie Baron Trump delegate Al Baldasaro of New Hampshire reiterated his belief that Hillary should be “put in the firing line and shot for treason.”  Forget about fact checking.  He needs tact checking. * Jerry Falwell Jr. praised Donald Trump as “America’s blue-collar billionaire,” but failed to mention

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Humoring the headlines: July 20, 2016

The Republican Convention Update By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO–On the first evening of the convention, Melania Trump delivered a speech, parts of which were flagrantly plagiarized from Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech to the Democratic Convention.  The initial response of the Trump campaign was either that the charge of plagiarism was unfounded or that Hillary Clinton was

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USA