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.
New Hampshire Primary Results By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO─ Donald Trump won the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary. In this year’s Republican primaries, nothing succeeds like excess. Trump’s victory inspired Benjamin Netanyahu to reveal plans to build a fence around Israel and get the Arab League to pay for it. * Chris Christie is expected […]
Humoring the headlines: February 10, 2016 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USABy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO─Chris Christie has been taunting Marco Rubio for being the “boy in the bubble” who evades answering tough questions by giving scripted answers. Although Rubio was true to form in this Saturday’s Republican debate, he must have wanted to snap back at Christie and exclaim, “And you’re the man who ate
Humoring the Headlines: February 7, 2016 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireThe Big Shorts By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO ─ This Sunday and Monday San Diego temporarily will become the world capital of short films. At the same time the Landmark Ken Theatre is showcasing the Oscar-nominated animated and live action short films, the San Diego Jewish Film Festival will be screening the Ma’aleh School of Film,
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Lawrence Baron, Theatre, Film & BroadcastSAN DIEGO (SDJW) — San Diego Jewish World expresses its appreciation to the 43 writers and photographers whose works appeared during January 2016. These individuals included: David Amos Eitan Arom Kenneth Bandler Laurie Baron Amber Bartlett Ronnie Blair Dan Bloom Shoshana Bryen Stephen Bryen Cynthia Citron Richard L. Cravatts Judy Friedel Michael Freund Donald H. Harrison Natasha
SDJW thanks 43 whose works appeared in January Read More »
Barry Shaw, Cynthia Citron, Donald H. Harrison, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Eileen Wingard, Eva Trieger, Fred Reiss, EdD, Ira Sharkansky, Lawrence Baron, Mark D. Zimmerman, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, Mimi Pollack, Natasha Josefowitz, Sheryl Rowling, Shoshana Bryen, Steve KramerBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO─ A recent Pew Poll revealed that Americans would be 37 % less likely to vote for a presidential candidate who had an extramarital affair, 31 % less likely to vote for one who had Washington experience, 26 % less likely to vote for someone who was gay, and 10 %
Humoring the Headlines: January 28, 2016 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO─ Track Palin faces domestic-violence charges after assaulting his girlfriend who was worried that he would commit suicide with an AR-15 rifle. His mother Sarah Palin blamed President Obama for Track’s mental instability because he hasn’t done enough to help returning veterans from Iraq who suffer from PTSD. Army psychiatrists treating
Humoring the Headlines: January 22, 2016 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO─ Fending off Donald Trump’s questioning of whether he is eligible to serve as president, Ted Cruz has hired Aretha Franklin to sing “You Make Me Feel like a Natural Born Citizen.” at his campaign rallies. * In response to criticism for his slow reaction to the water contamination crisis in
Humoring the Headlines: January 17, 2016 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireThe State of the Union in Review By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO─Barack Obama gave his final State of the Union address yesterday. He titled it “The Great of the Union.” Donald Trump could not resist rebutting the President’s speech. He called it, “The Hate of the Union.’ Although no longer a presidential candidate, Scott Walker
Humoring the Headlines: January 13, 2016 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO─ Donald Trump’s first television campaign ad reiterates his intention to build a wall on the Mexican border and make Mexico pay for it. To illustrate the porousness of the southern border, the ad features footage of refugees streaming across it. The problem is that the border in the film is
Humoring the headlines: January 6, 2016 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireSan Diego Jewish World thanks and acknowledges the wonderful contributions of the following writers whose works appeared on our pages in December, 2015: Stephen Baird Kenneth Bandler Laurie Baron Michal Beruven Dan Bloom Shoshana Bryen Richard L. Cravatts Jonathan Greenblatt Toby Klein Greenwald Ryan M. Greiss Donald H. Harrison Natasha Josefowitz Rabbi Ben Kamin Morton
SDJW thanks its December 2015 writers Read More »
Barry Shaw, Donald H. Harrison, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Eileen Wingard, Eric George Tauber, Eva Trieger, Ira Sharkansky, Lawrence Baron, Mark D. Zimmerman, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, Mimi Pollack, Natasha Josefowitz, San Diego County, Sheryl Rowling, Shoshana Bryen, Steve KramerBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO─ Here is a review of some of the important developments of 2015 BLACK LIVES MATTER–A Pew Research Institute study found that African American teenagers are more likely than their white or Latino peers to own smartphones. Nevertheless, it discovered that they don’t use them for texting or posting on Facebook
Humoring the Headlines: December 31, 2015 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron MARGATE, New Jersey─ “The Fright Before Christmas” Twas the night before Christmas, and at the North Pole Santa was worried some elf was a mole For a terrorist network that wanted him dead And planned to blow up his flying sled. Checking the elves with a metal detector To ferret out the ISIS
Humoring the Headlines: December 24, 2015 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron MARGATE, New Jersey‒Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin complimented each other on their leadership abilities. Trump is so confident he will win both the Republican nomination for president and the general election that he has begun secretly negotiating a diplomatic deal with Putin. If Trump wins the Oval Office, the United States will
Humoring the headlines: December 19, 2015 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Laurie Baron MARGATE, New Jersey‒ In several interviews Donald Trump said he was not bothered about being compared to Hitler. He added that he would be offended if he were compared to someone weak and with low energy like Jimmy Carter. * During a hearing on the constitutionality of Affirmative Action, Supreme Court Justice
Humoring the headlines: December 12, 2015 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire