Mordechai Ben David

Mordechai Werdyger (; born April 16, 1951) is an American Israeli Hasidic Jewish singer and songwriter who performs under the stage name Mordechai Ben David or simply MBD. He has released over 46 albums while performing internationally. He has headlined at charity concerts, especially those of HASC and Ohel.

Early life 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.

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. 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. 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)