Lawrence Baron

[caption id="attachment_170093" align="alignright" width="257"] Laurie Baron[/caption]

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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Kirk Douglas: Star of David and Hollywood

Like many Jews of his generation, he had changed his name to avoid revealing that he was born Issur Danielovitch, the son of poor Jewish immigrants who lived in Amsterdam, New York. Even before that, he adopted the Americanized surname of his uncle Avram Demsky and preferred Isadore over Issur. {Lawrence Baron, Ph.D]

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Lawrence Baron, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Obituaries & memorials

The untrial of Donald Trump

Some traitorous do-nothing Democrat made a false accusation against Donald T.  for he learned one day he was being impeached even though in his mind he had acted perfectly to get himself reelected.  Every morning his chef brought him a bucket of fried chicken for breakfast, but on this morning, a woman named Nancy sent him a kale salad with a note that ominously read: “Eat something healthy.  You’re going to need it.”  Within weeks his lawyers found themselves colluding with a turtle-faced man to shield T. from the calumnies a mixed-race prosecution team would level at him.  This reinforced T’s conviction that people who aren’t white are incapable to administering justice and need to be denied a voice in the government. [Satire by Laurie Baron]

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Some misgivings about Super & Puppy Bowls

I avoid watching the Super Bowl where giant men butt heads and push each other down inevitably injuring each other.  Frankly, I don’t understand the game.  When the quarterback passes the ball to a member of his team, the receiver runs in the opposite direction from the quarterback violating all my training to retrieve balls.  I’ve heard the ball is made of pigskin which offends my Jewish owners and ignores how wonderful rabbit fur feels in between my teeth.  [Humor by Elona Baron as told to Laurie Baron]

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Lawrence Baron, The World We Share, Trivia, Humor & Satire

A witness for the witless

The impeachment trial of the President Trump has taken a surprising turn.  A leak from John Bolton’s forthcoming book about his experiences as National Security Advisor reveals Trump conditioned military aid and a meeting with the president of Ukraine on the latter announcing investigations into Joe and Hunter Biden and Ukraine’s interference in the 2016 elections.  Here are some other incriminating passages it allegedly contains: [Satire by Laurie Baron]

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Arguments Trump’s team may offer in defense

President Trump named his defense team for his impeachment trial in the Senate.  His lawyers already have declared, “This is a brazen and unlawful attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election and interfere with the 2020 election, now just months away.”  I wondered whether they were referring to the impeachment articles or to Russian meddling in support of Trump, but at least they know how to take dictation.  Here’s the roster of some of the most famous members of Team Trump and a preview of their arguments. [Satire by Laurie Baron, PhD]

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

A dog’s view of pawlitical correctness

My owners pride themselves on being progressive.  They monitor what they say to avoid offending the ethnic, gender, national, racial, or religious sensibilities of others.  So it surprises me that they’re rather insensitive when speaking about dogs.  I’m sharing this list of inappropriate canine adages and phrases to alert people to their negative connotations. {Humor by Laurie Baron]

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Lawrence Baron, The World We Share, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Stephen Miller’s Christmas Carol  

I’m scheming for a white nation. 
Just like the way it used to be.                                                                                                        
No asylum seekers or border sneakers,
No more yearning to be free.   [Satire by Laurie Baron]        

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

If Democrats followed Trump’s example

Even after all the evidence presented at the House Impeachment Hearings, the American public opinion polls have not registered a significant shift in the numbers supporting impeachment and those opposed to it.  I believe this has nothing to do with the substance of the case against Trump and more to do with his ability to coin demeaning names for anyone who criticizes him.  Perhaps Michelle Obama was wrong.  Maybe we should abandon the high road and engage in name calling.  Here’s my list of suggested epithets: [Laurie Baron, PhD]

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

The Conscientious Canine’s Thanksgiving Dilemma  

I should show solidarity with the turkeys of the world (the poultry not the defenders of the Golden Deceiver.)  Although I can’t read, I have heard the quote from Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Enemies: A Love Story:  “As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought: in their behavior toward creatures, all men were Nazis. The smugness with which man could do with other species as he pleased exemplified the most extreme racist theories, the principle that might is right.” [Elona Baron as told to Laurie Baron]

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Lawrence Baron, The World We Share, Trivia, Humor & Satire