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.
“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.
Editor’s Note: Columnist Laurie Baron has been scouring the TV and Internet services for movies of Jewish interest that you can watch at home. Combined with the previous installments of his research, it is quite a collection. Here are links to Parts I, II, III, IV, and V.
The coronavirus has introduced new phrases into the American lexicon. At first I didn’t understand what they meant because I had heard (or misheard) these terms in a different context. Below you will see why I was confused: [Laurie Baron, PhD]
Columnist Laurie Baron has been scouring the TV and Internet services for movies of Jewish interest that you can watch at home. Combined with the previous installments of his research, it is quite a collection. Here are links to Parts I, II, III, and IV. [Laurie Baron, Ph.D]
Editor’s Note: Columnist Laurie Baron has been scouring the TV and Internet services for movies of Jewish interest that you can watch at home. Combined with the previous installments of his research, it is quite a collection. Here are links to Parts I, II, and III.
It had been the healthiest of times, but then it became the sickest of times. One day the rabies vaccine stopped working. There was a new virulent strain of distemper transmitted by wolves to their domesticated relatives. Dogs frothed at the mouth and bit humans and other dogs. Those who became infected suffered terribly and some died. [Satire by Elona Baron as told to Laurie Baron]
Here is another installment of movies of direct Jewish interest that you can watch at home. Links to previous installments may be found here and here. [Laurie Baron, Ph.D]
Whether Donald Trump holds his daily coronavirus press conferences to calm and inform the public or as a social distance substitute for his campaign rallies, the disinformation he disseminates through them is dangerous. Since he doesn’t read, I am encouraging his closest advisors to have him listen to these cautionary songs before he utters a word. [Satire column by Laurie Baron]
You’ve got more time on your hands than you have ever had, but also more anxiety about when the coronavirus pandemic will be over. I annually organize a Jewish Film series at my synagogue. Since it has been cancelled, here’s the first installment of Jewish programming you can stream in your home. [Lawrence Baron, Ph.D]
As was evident in my last column, I know all about the coronavirus. Ever since my owners have sequestered themselves in the house, I have observed them exhibiting odd behaviors which I fear are symptoms of the illness. Their eyes have become glazed from watching too much television. They even listen for extended periods to what the Golden Retriever is spouting on screen, a clinically proven cause of anxiety and high blood pressure. They previously turned the television off or switched channels whenever he appeared and spoke. [Humor by Elona Baron as told to Lawrence Baron]
Thou shalt not covid thy neighbor’s wife or anyone else in your neighborhood. … The early bird fetches the toilet paper. … [Humor column by Lawrence Baron, Ph.D]
A parent of three San Diego Jewish Academy students has tested positive for coronavirus, according to Chaim Heller, the retiring head of the school. In a letter to other parents sent on Saturday (Shabbat) , he wrote, “The parent was at school during the past week. Their children, who are in grades, 1, 3, and 6, were in many rooms, including the Ulam (Auditorium), many times during the past week as well. They were with their friends acting in a regular, non-distance manner during that time. Effectively, they could have been with anyone from the school, from ECC [Early Childhood Center] to high school.” [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]