BRAUN (Brown), ARIE

BRAUN (Brown), ARIE (1934– ), chief ḥazzan of the IDF for many years. Born in Jerusalem, Braun first trained as a ḥazzan under his father, Naḥum Yiẓḥak Brown, and the ḥazzan Zalman Rivlin. He further studied voice development and music under Rosenstein and the musicians Shmuel Rivlin, Yosef b. Barukh, and Yehoshua Zohar, and won a study grant from the Norman Fund. He was senior ḥazzan of the Ramah and Beth-El synagogues of Tel Aviv, and officiated at services and concerts in Australia, South Africa, Mexico, the United States and Canada. In 1974 he won first prize at the Ḥazzanut Festival in Israel. Braun served as chief ḥazzan of the IDF with the rank of major from 1976 to 1981, when he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, the first time that an IDF ḥazzan has received this rank. He has made a number of recordings. He is the proud possessor of a stentorian baritone voice, and has made a name for himself singing the Moishe oysher repertoire. (Akiva Zimmerman / Raymond Goldstein (2nd ed.)