David Werdyger
| David Werdyger | |
|---|---|
| Born |
30 October 1919 Poland |
| Died | 2 April 2014 (aged 94) United States |
| Genres | Hazzanut (Cantorial), Jewish music |
| Occupation(s) | Hazzan, travel agent |
| Years active | 1950–2000s |
| Labels | Aderet Records |
David Werdyger (30 October 1919 – 2 April 2014) was a Polish-American Hasidic Jewish hazzan and solo singer who was considered one of the pioneers of 20th-century Jewish music. A Holocaust survivor who was incarcerated in several Nazi concentration camps, including the factory run by Oskar Schindler, Werdyger moved to Brooklyn, New York, after World War II and began recording albums featuring the music of the Bobov, Boyan, Skulen, Melitz, Radomsk, and Ger Hasidic dynasties, recording 60 albums in all. He also founded and operated a successful travel agency, Werdyger Travel, and established the Jewish record label, Aderet Records, now managed by his son Mendy. He was the father of popular Jewish singer Mordechai Ben David and the grandfather of Jewish singers Yeedle (Mordechai's son) and Yisroel Werdyger (Mendy's son).
Werdyger was the youngest of four sons and four daughters born to Yisrael Aryeh Werdyger, a well-to-do wholesaler of men's shirts and dry goods and a prominent member of the Gerrer Hasidic community of Kraków (Cracow), to which the family moved shortly after David's birth. The Werdyger family was known for its musical talent, and as a youngster, David's singing ability was readily apparent. At the age of six he became the soloist in the choir of the Eizik Yeikeles Synagogue in Kraków, and at age 12 he was invited by Yankel Talmud, the leader of the Gerrer choir, to be a soloist in that choir in the town of Ger. On Rosh Hashana, he sang before the Gerrer Rebbe, the Imrei Emes, and thousands of Hasidim.
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