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.
This is the first time I am residing with a Jewish family that celebrates what I think is called the High Collie Days. I’m not exactly sure what that entails, but I want to fit in. Tomorrow night is Sleek Coat, and, I definitely have one. People recite prayers and readings about forgiveness. I might skip it because I haven’t attacked any dogs, bit any humans, or scared any people in the past year.
By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO−Donald Trump: “The [energy efficient] bulbs that we’re being forced to use – number one, to me, most importantly, the light is no good. I always look orange.” No, the lights in your tanning booth make you look orange, President Raccoon Eyes!” * Donald Trump: “Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked.
I heard this week that the Golden Deceiver fired John Bolton. What did he expect when he appointed Bolton? From my own experience, I don’t want to be near two alpha dogs when they are in the same room. The biting, the growling, and the marking of territory guarantee that eventually one of them is going to send his rival packing with his legs between his tail or, in Bolton’s case, under his moustache.
On Monday President Trump told reporters: “I don’t want to allow people that weren’t supposed to be in the Bahamas to come into the United States, including some very bad people and some very bad gang members and some very, very bad drug dealers.” The seeds of his 2020 stump speech have been planted. Here’s our forecast of what he’ll say.
Climate change is a hoax invented by the Chinese.” Why doesn’t the President impose a tariff on China on exports of droughts, forest fires, hurricanes, hot weather, melting glaciers, pollution, rising sea levels, and torrential rains to the USA?
Beware of Human By Elona Baron as told to Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO−On my walks in the neighborhood, I see a lot of Beware of Dog signs. Why don’t I ever see any Beware of Human signs? There are approximately 88,000,000 dogs in the United States, and, 49 Americans died from dog bites last year.
Famous Working Dogs By Elona Baron as Told to Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO−When my owners take me for a walk, other dogs bark at me. People think it’s an expression of aggression, but actually it’s the way dogs communicate to each other since we don’t have IPawPads. After my Dog Day column appeared, they’ve been
Donald Trump’s Endvironmentalism By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO- At the recent G7 meeting, Donald Trump claimed, “I’m an environmentalist.” Was the term he actually uttered “endvironmentalist?” Here’s a fact check. * The G7 devoted a session to climate change and decided to partially fund the effort to extinguish the fires in the Amazon. Trump neither
National Dog Day By Elona Baron as told to Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO-National Dog Day is August 26th. Rather than growl about why dogs only get a day instead of a celebratory month, I want to provide sketches of famous dogs. Most are real, but some I imagined while waiting endless hours for my masters
Presidential Prayers By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO−“Our President, who was Chosen, hollow is your fame. You’ve made us numb, with Tweets so dumb, on Obama’s birth in Kenya and not here. Give us this day our daily dread, and imprison your enemies as you have asylum seekers. And lead us into stagflation, while failing to
This story was updated on August 26, 2019 By Ken Stone Times of San Diego SAN DIEGO — A week before the November 2018 election, 17 San Diego-area rabbis signed a letter denouncing Rep. Duncan Hunter‘s “fear mongering” attacks on the Palestinian ancestry of Christian opponent Ammar Campa-Najjar. They said the Republican congressman’s attacks on the
The Jest Is Commentary By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO−Politicians have made insane remarks in the past week. In a just world, their stupidity automatically would elicit these comments. Iowa Congressman Steve King: “What if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled those people out that were products of rape and incest?