Mordechai Ben David

MBD was one of four sons born to David Werdyger, a hazzan (cantor) from Kraków who survived the Holocaust. MBD was a soloist on a number of his father's albums, which combined classic Hasidic niggunim (melodies) with cantorial vocals and classical instruments. Even so, his shyness and introversion caused him to be less inclined than his three cantor brothers to sing in public. Even much later in life, MBD has voiced his aversion to cantoring. ==Career==

MBD began his musical career during a time when hazzanut was the main source of recorded music in Orthodox Jewish circles, with very few solo singer-performers. He was inspired by Ben Zion Shenker and Shlomo Carlebach, who in the early 1960s had pioneered a genre rooted in Hasidic and American folk music. MBD's first concert performance was in 1972, when friends cajoled him to open for the musical group Ohr Chadash at Brooklyn College. At the event, for which he earned $50, MBD sang a few of his father's songs and some of the material from his own first album Mordechai Ben David Werdyger Sings Original Chassidic Niggunim. Noticed by a record producer, MBD was then invited to open for Yigal Calek and his London School of Jewish Song. The stage name Mordechai Ben David () was suggested by a friend as a way for MBD to bolster his own career by connecting it to his father's notoriety. was composed in honor of the 2012 Siyum HaShas. A single composed for the Days of Awe, "Nekom", was released in 2015. In June 2017 he released the album Tzeaka including soloists Motty Steinmetz and Nussi Fuchs. MBD records in his private studio in Sea Gate, Brooklyn. He has been called the "King of Jewish Music" and the "Jewish Michael Jackson". , his album sales have exceeded one million units. , he has recorded 46 albums and participated in 40 album collaborations. ==Genre==

Many of MBD's lyrics are based on Hebrew prayer, biblical passages, and zemiros (Jewish religious poetry). Other songs, composed in English, Yiddish, and Modern Hebrew, carry religious themes such as the sanctity of Shabbos and the yearning for Moshiach. His recordings include traditional Hasidic melodies of Eastern European folk-style alongside more modern jazz, pop, and rock music. While this style of music remains popular with Orthodox Jews, MBD's performances have occasionally been a target for criticism by the Haredi community. In June 2004, eight Haredi rabbis from Manchester decried MBD's upcoming concert in the Lowry as "a negative influence on young people" in a letter they signed, in which they urged their followers not to participate in the event. One of the rabbis said "We are becoming polluted with this popular sub-culture that is causing immorality. It is not true that this is 'religious' music as some people claim; this is a very different genre". The concert organizer dismissed the rebuke, comparing the "extremist" rabbis' religious fervor to that of suicide bombers, and asserted that this type of concert appealed to "99.99 per cent" of the Jewish community. A portion of the event's proceeds were earmarked for ZAKA, an Israeli organization that offers assistance in the wake of suicide attacks. The Manchester beth din (religious court) issued a clarification that the rabbis' statement did not represent the views of the beth din. MBD's concerts are typically gender-segregated. ==Political opinions==

Beginning in the 1980s, some of MBD's songs began to carry political messages that emanated from current events and other issues of interest to Orthodox Jews. The title track of 1982's Just One Shabbos was a tribute to Meir Schuster, a rabbi who engaged in Orthodox Judaism outreach for many years at Jerusalem's Western Wall. In 1984 and 1985, MBD's songs "Hold On" and "Let My People Go" focused on the plight of Anatoly Natan Sharansky, a Jewish refusenik languishing behind the Iron Curtain. In 1986, Simcha Bunim Alter (sixth rebbe of Ger) asked MBD to headline at a mass demonstration in April of that year opposite the Temple Mount in protest of the construction of the BYU Jerusalem Center. MBD's quasi-rock beat "Not For Sale", which was written for the occasion, embodied the spirit of Haredi opposition to the center, which crystallized due to their fears that the Mormons would use it to proselytize to the Jews. In the end, the center was formally greenlighted by the Knesset after the Mormons pledged not to use the facility for missionary activity. Thirty-six years later, MBD remembered this performance as one of the most exhilarating moments of his career. In 2016, MBD attracted controversy after a December 29 concert performance in Jerusalem, wherein he remarked to the audience in Hebrew between songs, "Do you know when there will be peace? In a few weeks, when there will be a new president in the United States and the kushi goes home." The statement prompted applause from the audience, which included Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri. The recorded comments, made in Hebrew and referencing outgoing US President Barack Obama and incoming president Donald Trump, were perceived by many who reviewed the footage as containing a pejorative term towards black people. In an opinion piece for Yeshiva World News, Yair Hoffman criticized media coverage of the incident, noting that the audience had cheered after "there will be a new president" rather than at the racial term. He wrote that while MBD's use of the term was "wrong" and merited an apology, the term itself was not necessarily pejorative or derogatory. ==Personal life==

MBD's wife, Esther, is the daughter and sister of hazzanim. His brother Mendy, also a Jewish singer, is the owner of the Jewish record label Aderet Records and its retail store in Boro Park, Brooklyn. His son, Yeedle, and nephew, Yisroel Werdyger (Mendy's son), are also Jewish singers. His brother-in-law Ari Klein is a cantor who has recorded several albums. His cousin, Shmilu Rosenberg of Canada released two albums in the 1980s. In April 2017, MBD wrote and released a song titled "Boee Besholom" dedicated to the marriage of his granddaughter. The song was sung at the wedding by MBD and singer Lipa Schmeltzer who was one of the guests. MBD resides in Sea Gate, Brooklyn. == Song adaptations ==

A few of MBD's songs are adaptations of well-known, non-Jewish songs. • "Hinei Lo Yanum" on Hineni (1974) is an adaptation of "Mamy Blue", originally composed by veteran French songwriter Hubert Giraud in 1970. In May 1971, Alain Milhaud, a French record producer based in Spain, acquired the song for Pop-Tops. • "Shir Hashalom" on his Neshama-Soul album (1975) is an adaptation from Bobby Vinton's "My Melody of Love". • "Blow the Shofer" on Moshiach is Coming Soon (1980) is an adaptation of Salvatore Adamo's "Tombe La Neige". • "Lichtiger Shabbos" on Just One Shabbos (1982) [retitled "Yiddish" on Solid MBD (1993)] is an adaptation of "Close Every Door To Me", from the musical theater production Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. • "Kumt Aheim" on Jerusalem: Not For Sale (1986), commonly referred to as "Yidden" and retitled as such for the CD release, uses the music of "Dschinghis Khan" (English: Genghis Khan), from the German band Dschinghis Khan. • "Father Dear" on Yerushalayim Our Home (1988) [retitled "Daddy Dear" on The English Collection (1998)] uses music from the song "Little Boy and the Old Man", written by singer-songwriter Wayne Shanklin. In addition, "V'chol Ma'aminim", from MBD's album of the same name, was an adaptation of "Tov Lehodos", an earlier song by Shlomo Carlebach. "Yerushalayim Our Home" on Yerushalayim Our Home (1988) is based on the first verse and chorus of "Al Kapav Yavee" by Rivka Zohar. == Discography ==

Solo albums • Mordechai Ben David Werdyger Sings Original Chassidic Nigunim (1973) • Hineni (1974) • Neshama Soul (1975) • ''I'd Rather Pray and Sing'' (1977) • ''V'chol Ma'aminim - Songs of Yomim Noraim'' (1978) • Yeedle, A Verdige Yid (2013) • Shir (2014) • Shir 2 (2016) • Lev El Haneshama (2019) • All Star - Teniyos (2022) • Ata Zocher (Single) - MBD & Ishay Ribo (2023) ==References==