Jack Beder was known for his Montreal street scenes and 1930’s Montreal cafés, but also painted landscapes, still-lifes, gardens, and portraits/figures. Jack Beder was one of the most representative members of a group of artists known as the “Jewish Painters of Montreal” who depicted the social realism of the city during 1930s and 1940s. This term, first used by the media to describe the participants in the annual Young Men’s – Young Women’s Hebrew Association art show in the 1930s, was popularized by art historian Esther Trépanier in the 1980s.

He painted in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. He regularly participated in exhibitions of the Art Association of Montreal (beginning in 1931) and the Contemporary Arts Society of Montreal (as of 1939).