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.
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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.
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CSI-Clueless Saudi Investigator By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO−The show opens with a gory scene of fifteen bearded men wearing red and white checkered keffiyehs cinched with black ayals. They are dismembering a bloody corpse with a bone saw inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The camera shifts to the Oval Office of the White House […]
Humoring the headlines: October 17, 2918 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireTrump on the Stump Translations By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO−For those who don’t understand Trump Speak, here is what he says and what his base hears. * “It’s a very scary time for young men in America when you can be guilty of something that you may not be guilty of.” This means boys can
Humoring the headlines: October 12, 2018 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USATrump University Syllabus, Hiring 101 By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO-As the confirmation process on Brett Kavanaugh winds down, the FBI report ignored a potentially relevant document, the syllabus for Hiring 101 from Trump University. * Hiring 101 Week 1: Outsourcing the Application Pool Week 2: The Background Check: Discredit Red Flags, Expedite, Limit Scope Week
Humoring the Headlines: October 4, 2018 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireSomedays I Can’t Humor the Headlines By Laurie Baron The Rapist: With Apologies to Edgar Allan Poe and Christine Blasey Ford Once upon a high-school party, stalking girls who might be tarty, They selected one who came upstairs and jumped her on the second floor. He held her down, though quite drunken, on a mattress
Humoring the headlines: September 27, 2018 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, USA
German court dismisses appeal against Kuwaiti Airways discriminatory policy A German court in Frankfurt on Tuesday rejected an appeal by an Israeli passenger barred from boarding a Kuwait Airways flight because of the airline’s strict policy of banning all Israelis. The case had been brought by the Israeli, represented by The Lawfare Project, after he
Editor’s E-Mail Box: September 25, 2018 (4 items) Read More »
International, Lawrence Baron, Middle East, San Diego Calendar, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Travel and FoodBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — The Joyce Forum Short Film Festival is triply new. It will screen on October 6th and 7th at the David and Dorothea Garfield Theatre of the Lawrence Family JCC separately from the San Diego Jewish Film Festival becoming the first Jewish shorts film festival in the world. As the
Joyce Forum Short Film Festival’s special joys Read More »
Lawrence Baron, San Diego Calendar, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO−Brett Kavanaugh conferred with White House advisers on how to deny the charge of attempted rape. They presented him with a number of alibis employed by powerful men in similar situations and counseled him to choose one and adapt it to his circumstances. * Bill Clinton: “I did not try to
Humoring the headlines: September 22, 2018 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USAEnhanced Interrogations to Identify Anonymous By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — President Trump has decided that polygraphing all the associates he suspects of writing the anonymous OpEd in the failing New York Times will not not yield the identity of the treasonous culprit. He has appointed Dick Cheney to serve as the Presidential Grand Inquisitor
Humoring the headlines: September 11, 2018 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USASmear: Bunk about the Whitehouse By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO−To counter Bob Woodward’s new book Fear: Trump in the White House, members of the Trump administration have published a book challenging Woodward’s accounts of what they allegedly said about the president. Here are some excerpts: * James Mattis: Since I know the president has more
Humoring the headlines: September 6, 2018 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatirePolitical Singing Groups Cover Classic Rock Songs: In Memory of Aretha Franklin: “A Change is Gonna Come” By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO−Godspeed Mac, “Go Your Own Way” * Don Petty and the Lawbreakers, “Free Fallin” * Guns and Lobbies (Official Band of the NRA), “Live and Let Die” * The Supremes, “Let Me Go the
Humoring the headlines: August 31, 2018 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireAdages for the Trump Era By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO−If you don’t have something nice to say about someone, don’t say anything for two days until you are pressured to say something positive you don’t really mean. * A snitch in time almost ought to be outlawed. * Late to bed, early to rise makes
Humoring the headlines: August 28, 2018 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USAFlipper, a Fable By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO−Once upon a time, there lived a pod of whales who ruled the coastal waters of the United States. The obese white whale leading the Pod referred to himself as PODUS. He had the largest round blowhole out of which he constantly spouted grandiose schemes, insults, lies, and
Humoring the headlines: August 24, 2018 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire13 Grounds to Strip Your Clearance By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO−Federal employees can lose their security clearance for thirteen reasons. Criticizing the president after leaving office is not one. Since Trump isn’t familiar with these reasons, here’s a song set to the tune of 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover to teach him. Former agents
Humoring the headlines: August 18, 2018 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireTrump’s Bedminster Skimming List By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO−In case he finds time between golfing, tweeting, and watching Fox News, Donald Trump brought some books to skim [he never reads anything longer than an executive order] whose titles intrigued him. Here’s his skimming list and why he wants to skim these books. * The Brothers
Humoring the headlines: August 15, 2018 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire