David Braun: Linguist

June 28, 2013

David Braun is a language teacher and researcher. He majored in both linguistics and folklore at the University of Pennsylvania and attended graduate school at MIT studying theoretical linguistics, a branch of cognitive science that is concerned with how the human language capacity is stored in the mind/brain and accessed. His work has been primarily with Yiddish and English, and for the longest period of his career he has taught university students at Harvard, with shorter stops at Penn, Columbia, NYU, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Yiddish Book Center at Hampshire College. He also does work as a translator, tutor, editor/proofreader, and language pronunciation coach for performers. As a volunteer, he has been an administrator since 2012 of Facebook’s “I Grew Up in Leonia” group, which boasts over 1,100 subscribers. In February 2013, he was appointed a Leonia borough historian.

Q: Where did you grow up?

A: Until I was 3 and 1/2, my family lived in an apartment building near the No. 1 train and across from Inwood Hill Park at the northernmost tip of Manhattan. My father, Mati Braun, took that train to work daily at Lincoln Center. He is a violinist, retired from the NY Philharmonic. My mother, the late Shirley Manuel, a violist, was a teacher of stringed instruments. Coming on 40 years ago, my parents bought a house in Leonia on Overlook Avenue, which I still call home.

Q: Why did your parents move to Leonia?

A: They wanted a backyard for me to play in, good schools, and an easy bus commute to the city since my father didn’t drive. They were assured, by cellist and longtime Leonia resident Barbara Mallow, that the town had all of these, and much more. Barbara’s mother was Lillian Fuchs, a great violist who taught my mother at the Manhattan School of Music, and whose uncle, the renowned violinist Joseph Fuchs, taught my father at the Juilliard School. My mother later gave lessons to Lillian Fuchs’ granddaughter, the violist Jeanne Mallow, who also grew up in Leonia.

Q: With two musician parents, do you play an instrument?

A: No. I know the violin’s very basics, but from a young age, languages and cultures had captivated me, and I left musical performance to my parents. They respected that; they were pleased I had found something early in life that I was devoted to as much as they were devoted to music in their own youths.

Q: What has left an impression on you from your early childhood in Leonia?

A: I had phenomenal teachers at ACS, consummate professionals. The late Eleanore Bell was my first grade teacher; I had the ageless Diane Ford for second grade; the late Eva Korth for third; and Jeanne Dimmit for fourth. My art teacher was Viola Scarangella, she just celebrated her 96th birthday. My music teacher was Carolyn Macari Russo, who retired not long ago, and my gym teacher was Bill Eickelberg. I’ve seen the latter two recently, and both are unchanged after all this time! For middle school and high school, I attended Jewish day schools in Bergen County and then Manhattan.

Q: Where do you most enjoy traveling?

A: I’ve spent many summers abroad – visiting family in Israel or teaching in Europe. One summer when I was teaching in Warsaw, Poland, I trekked to the country’s northeastern border with Belarus and Lithuania to visit Suchowola, my maternal grandmother’s shtetl (small town). The flora and the layout of the town were so reminiscent of Leonia’s, that I understood why my grandmother, who always lived with us, felt so at home in town. I’ve also visited my paternal grandparents’ pre-WWII homes in Budapest. But this summer, I’m looking forward to staying put and doing laps daily at the Leonia Swim Club!

Q: How many languages do you speak?

A: I’m fluent in English, Yiddish and Hebrew. I’m comfortable with Portuguese, Spanish, and French. And I can make my way in Polish, Russian, and German.

Q: You’re a Yiddishist. How many of those are there in the world?

A: It is quite a specialized area, but mind you: little Leonia is big enough to possess two residents who have done technical analysis of Yiddish grammar! While in grad school at MIT, a professor handed me an insightful article in the field by Barnard/Columbia linguist Joe Malone whose son I went to elementary school with. Leonia may be small; the world is even smaller!

Q: What kind of music do you enjoy?

A: I’m true to my parents’ musical tastes: I love classical and ethnic music. As a folklorist, I’ve been a “folk song collector,” primarily by recording and researching my maternal grandmother’s repertoire. An online website about Yiddish folksong features her in this clip: yiddishsong.wordpress.com/2012/07/06/di-gantse-velt-iz-hevl-havolim-performed-by-lillian-manuel/.

Q: Do you have a favorite food?

A: I love all ethnic cuisines, especially if they’re spicy. That Leonia has become a Korean enclave is especially gratifying to my palate. I’m a regular at Dok Ka Bi (by the rec center). When I recently ordered a spicy soft tofu stew by its Korean name, a server, with a glint in his eye, asked if I was Korean. I told him, “No, but you’re close: I’m Leonian.”

Q: How did you become interested in Leonia history?

A: I came back to Leonia on a regular basis in 2006, at that time to look after my ailing mother. I’d always wanted to get better acquainted with the story of the town, and doing so once I’d returned provided me with a stimulating fresh perspective on being here. And on being, in general, once I experienced my mother’s premature death – she was very attached to the town. The “I Grew Up in Leonia” Facebook page developed into a great forum for sharing interest in the town with others, via memories, photos, uploaded documents, links to historical maps, etc. The running commentary makes it into a live archive of “Leoniana.” Anyone, anywhere in the world, can access the site. You have to have a Facebook account and become a group member only in order to post your own photos and comments. And to join, you don’t have to be from Leonia per se; an intimate connection with the town as a resident or a student during some period in your life is your ticket in. On the site, we’ve talked about everything from the original local inhabitants – the Lenape Indians – through the recipes that made Joe’s Subs so popular in the 1960s and 70s up until the flowers and sculptures that adorn the Boyd Sculpture Garden this very summer.

Q: What do you plan to do as borough historian?

A: Generally: to encourage an appreciation, through exploration, of our surroundings and of the richness and depth of their history. Explore your back yard! Open your family photo album! Visit historical documents at the Local History Room in the Leonia Public Library basement! Click on turn-of-the-century Leonia post cards for sale on eBay. Specifically: to continue the pleasure of the Facebook group; to assist the Leonia Historic Preservation Commission with research; to work on future town tours – I was a guide on the June 2 tour of historic homes and public buildings, and both the guides and the guided left in the hopes of more to come!