Mordechai Werdyger professionally known as Mordechai Ben David ' onMouseout='HidePop("41904")' href="/topics/Literal_translation">lit

Literal translation

Literal translation, or direct translation, is the rendering of text from one language to another "word-for-word" rather than conveying the sense of the original...

. Mordechai, son of David) or MBD for short, is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Hasidic

Hasidic Judaism

Hasidic Judaism or Hasidism, from the Hebrew —Ḥasidut in Sephardi, Chasidus in Ashkenazi, meaning "piety" , is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that promotes spirituality and joy through the popularisation and internalisation of Jewish mysticism as the fundamental aspects of the Jewish faith...

 Jewish

Jews

The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

 singer and songwriter popular in the Orthodox Jewish

Orthodox Judaism

Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...

 community. He has been referred to as the 'King of Jewish music'. He has produced many popular Jewish albums over the past 40 years. He also starred as a frequent performer in the popular HASC concert series for almost two decades. Werdyger blends traditional Hasidic melodies with modern pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 to create the songs in his albums, working with contemporary music producer Eli Lishinsky. Werdyger does not sing at mixed concerts for religious reasons.. As of November 2011, he has announced that he has unofficially retired and his 2011 album Kisufim will be his last.

Family

His father, David Werdyger

David Werdyger

David Werdyger is a Hasidic Jewish Hazzan and solo singer who is considered one of the pioneers of 20th-century Jewish music...

, is a hazzan

Hazzan

A hazzan or chazzan is a Jewish cantor, a musician trained in the vocal arts who helps lead the congregation in songful prayer.There are many rules relating to how a cantor should lead services, but the idea of a cantor as a paid professional does not exist in classical rabbinic sources...

 (cantor) and Holocaust

The Holocaust

The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...

 survivor originally from Kraków

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

. His brother, Mendy, is also a Jewish singer and owner of the Jewish record label Aderet Records and its retail store in Boro Park, Brooklyn

Borough Park, Brooklyn

Borough Park , is a neighborhood in the southwestern part of the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City in the United States....

, Mostly Music. His son, Yeedle, nephew, Yisroel Werdyger (Mendy's son), and son-in-law, Mendy Wald, are also popular Jewish singers.

Werdyger lives in Sea Gate, Brooklyn, and has mentioned that he has purchased a house in Jerusalem and intends to move there shortly.

Song adaptations

A few of MBD's songs are adaptations of well-known, non-Jewish songs.

• "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
  Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
  Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical with lyrics by Tim Rice. The story is based on the "coat of many colors" story of Joseph from the Hebrew Bible's Book of Genesis. This was the first Lloyd Webber and Rice musical to be performed publicly...
  
  , by Tim Rice
  Tim Rice
  Sir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice is an British lyricist and author.An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus...
  
   and Andrew Lloyd Webber
  Andrew Lloyd Webber
  Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
  
  .
• "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
  Dschinghis Khan (song)
  Dschinghis Khan was the West German entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1979, performed in German by Dschinghis Khan...
  
  " (English: Genghis Khan), from the German band Dschinghis Khan
  Dschinghis Khan
  Dschinghis Khan was a West German pop band, created in 1979 to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest. The name of the band was chosen to fit the song of the same name, written and produced by Ralph Siegel with lyrics by Bernd Meinunger....
  
  .
• "Father Dear" on Yerushalayim Our Home (1988) [retitled "Daddy Dear" on The English Collection (1998)] uses music from "Little Child," performed by many earlier singers, notably Cab Calloway
  Cab Calloway
  Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....
  
   and his daughter in 1956; it, in turn, is adapted from an earlier French song.
• "Shir Hashalom" is an adaptation from Bobby Vinton
  Bobby Vinton
  Bobby Vinton is an American pop music singer of Polish origin. In pop music circles, he became known as "The Polish Prince".-Early life:...
  
  's My Melody of Love
  My Melody of Love
  "My Melody of Love" is the title of a popular song from 1974 by the American singer Bobby Vinton. Vinton adapted his song from a German song composed by Henry Mayer, and it appears on Vinton's album Melodies of Love....
  
  .

In addition, "Vechol Maminim", from MBD's album of the same name, was an adaptation of "Tov Lehodos", an earlier song by Shlomo Carlebach

Shlomo Carlebach

Shlomo Carlebach , known as Reb Shlomo to his followers, was a Jewish rabbi, religious teacher, composer, and singer who was known as "The Singing Rabbi" during his lifetime...

.

Discography

• Mordechai Ben David Werdyger Sings Original Chassidic Nigunim (1973)
• Hineni (1974)
• Neshama Soul (1975)
• I'd Rather Pray and Sing (1977)
• Vechol Maminim - Songs of Rosh Hashana (1979)
• Moshiach is Coming Soon (1980)
• Memories (1981)
• Mordechai Ben David Live (1981)
• Ich Hob Gevart (I Have Waited) (1982)
• Just One Shabbos (1983)
• Around the Year Vol. 1 (1984)
• Hold On (1984)
• Let My People Go (1985)
• Jerusalem Not For Sale (1986)
• MBD and Friends (1987)
• Jerusalem Our Home - Lekovod Yom Tov (1988)
• Siman Tov and Keitzad (Singles) (1989)
• The Double Album (1990)
• Solid MBD (1990)
• Moshiach, Moshiach, Moshiach (1992)
• Live in Jerusalem (1989)
• Tomid BeSimcha - Always Happy (1994)
• Special Moments (1994)
• Once Upon a Niggun (1996)
• Chevron Forever (single)(1996)
• Ein Od Milvado (1997)
• The English Collection (1998)
• We Are One (1999)
• Maaminim (2001)
• Kumzits (2003)
• Nachamu Ami (2004)
• Oorah [single] (2005)
• Efshar Letaken (2006)
• Yiddish Collection (2007)
• Anovim Anovim [single] (2008)
• Oorah [single] (2008)
• Levado - Mishpacha [single] (2008)
• Kulam Ahuvim (2009)
• Platinum Collection (2009)
• Kisufim (2011)

In addition, MBD appears on many albums including:

• JEP Vol. 4 (1979)
• Jerusalem (1983)
• Father & Sons Biglal Avos (1984)
• Torah (1985)
• Simcha (1986)
• Hallel (1987)
• 25 Years Of Jewish Music (1988)
• Yeedle - Together (1993)
• 3 Generations (1994)
• Yeedle - Laasos Retzon Avicha (1995)
• Best Of The Best 1 (1997)
• Solid Gold Volume 1 (1997)
• Solid Gold Volume 2 (1998)
• Lev Vanefesh II (1998)
• Mona 3 (1998)
• Solid Gold Volume 3 (1999)
• Hamishorririm (1999)
• Ken Burgess - I'll Never Walk Alone In The Desert (2000)
• All Star Collection (2000)
• The Vocal Version (2001)
• Best Of The Best 2 (2002)
• Yeedle - IV (2002)
• Mona 4 (2003)
• Sheves Achim Shabbos In Mezibuz (2004)
• Ken Burgess - Melech (2005)
• Brand New (2005)
• Shabbos With The Werdygers 1 (2006)
• Yeedle - Lev Echad (2008)
• Hameorerim (2008)
• The 8th Note (2008)
• Shabbos With The Werdygers 2 (2010)
• Lipa Schmeltzer - Meimka Dlipa: From the Depth of My Heart (2010)
• Miami Boys Choir - Light Up the Nights & Greatest Dance Hits (2010)