The following biographical information has been provided by Karen Reynolds, the daughter of the artist:

Born in Poland in 1910. He immigrated to Montreal in 1926. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal from 1929-1934, during which time he won several awards and prizes for drawing and painting.

His style was representational and impressionist and his main influences were Maurice Cullen and, more importantly, James Wilson Morrice, both Canadian painters. He was best known for Montreal street scenes and 1930s Montreal cafes, but also painted landscapes, still-lifes, gardens and portraits/figures. He worked in oils, acrylics, gouaches, watercolors, pastels, drawings and prints (serigraphs, linoprints, monotypes and monoprints). He also produced sculpture, mostly non-objective, in wood, limestone, marble, serpentine, plaster and liquitex/cardboard.

He painted in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.  He was a member of the Contemporary Arts Society, the Canadian Society of Graphic Art and the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolor.

His work has been exhibited at the following museums: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Art Gallery of Toronto (now Art Gallery of Ontario), National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Art Gallery of London (now Museum London), Edmonton Art Gallery, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Rodman Hall (St. Catharines, Ontario), Art Gallery of Windsor, Nova Scotia Museum of Fine Arts, Confederation Art Centre (P.E.I.), Musée de Joliette, Concordia University (Montreal), Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec; and at the following art societies: Royal Canadian Academy, Contemporary Arts Society, Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolor, Manitoba Society of Artists, Federation of Canadian Artists, Canadian Society of Graphic Arts, Maritime Art Association, Alberta Society of Artists, Philadelphia Water Color Society; also the Canadian Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

He is represented in the permanent collections of Museum London (London, Ontario), Concordia University (Montreal, Quebec), Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec (Quebec City, Quebec), Musée de Joliette (Joliette, Quebec).

Sources:
Personal information from the artist's files
1987. Jewish Painters and Modernity, Montreal 1930-1945. Esther Trépanier, Saidye  
Bronfman Centre, Montreal. 181 pp. (color images).
 1993. Jack Beder, the Life and Work of a Montreal Painter (1910-1987) [in French].
François Dion, M.A. Thesis, University of Quebec at Montreal. 252 pp. & Illustrations.
2004. Jack Beder: City Lights. Esther Trépanier & Sandra Paikowsky, Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal. 86 pp.