Mordechai Ben David

Mordechai Ben David was born in 1951 in Brooklyn

He was born in Brooklyn in 1951. His father, David Werdyger, was a cantor from Kraków and a Holocaust survivor. He was one of four sons and sang as a soloist on several of his father's albums.

He was shy and less eager than his brothers to sing in public. He was influenced by Ben Zion Shenker and Shlomo Carlebach. A friend suggested the stage name Mordechai Ben David, linking him to his father.

His first concert was in 1972 at Brooklyn College, where he earned $50. He worked with arrangers and composers such as Yisroel Lamm and Mona Rosenblum. The Ribnitzer rebbe encouraged him toward a more traditional Hasidic style, and he combined Hasidic music with rock and jazz.

In 1981 he and producer Sheya Mendlowitz produced Avraham Fried's first solo album. He has headlined charity concerts, especially for HASC and Ohel. From the late 1990s he gradually returned to a traditional Hasidic style.