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: December 23, 2013

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO―Al Qaeda issued an apology for attacking a hospital in Yemen which it erroneously thought was the country’s defense ministry.  Its spokesman explained that under the organization’s Osama Care policy, it guarantees medical treatment to anyone who manages to survive bombings carried out by its members. * Hackers compromised the credit

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Humoring the Headlines: December 20, 2013

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO―President Obama appointed the American delegation to the Winter Olympics.  To protest Russia’s laws against homosexuals, he included the openly gay tennis champion Billie Jean King and two-time women’s hockey medalist Caitlin Cahow in its ranks.  To add insult to injury, he has recruited the Village People to sing “YMCA” instead

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Humoring the Headlines: December 12, 2013

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO―The budget deal forged by Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Patty Murray will end extensions of unemployment insurance for 1.3 million Americans.  Since the current Congress s has passed fewer bills than any of its postwar predecessors, some deficit hawks have suggested docking the salary of its members because they haven’t

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Humoring the Headlines: December 8, 2013

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO―As happens this time annually, conservatives are decrying the secular war on Christmas.  Having Christmas designated a national holiday, having a national Christmas tree, and having the media flooded with Christmas advertisements and messages from Thanksgiving until December 25th does constitute a war, but it is being waged against people who

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Humoring the Headlines: November 24, 2013

Some songs for Chanukah By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO― Afghanistan (Tune: Oh Hanukah) Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Your future is certain.   . Our troops will defend you To profit Haliburton. There’s no more Osama, To terrorize our land. But President Obama Still fears the Taliban. And while we are fighting, Iran is enriching its core. For domestic

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Humoring the Headlines: November 22, 2013

SAN DIEGO―Republican Congressman Trey Radel of Florida pled guilty of cocaine possession and use this week and blamed his addiction on his alcoholism.  This is the same excuse embattled Toronto Mayor Rob Ford gave for smoking crack cocaine.  Reporters checking into the drinking habits of the two men have learned that they always ordered rum

Humoring the Headlines: November 22, 2013 Read More »

Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Humoring the Headlines: November 11, 2013

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO-Now that Chris Christie has presidential momentum, the Tea Party is conducting opposition research to find skeletons in his past.  One researcher is exploring a rumor about him being guilty of marital and political infidelity.  Apparently there is footage of him in a threesome with a democratic president, and a tempestuous

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire