Bernard Wexler and the Making of Alex Bernard

1931 - 1932
3631 de Bullion

During the 1930s, Alex Bernard led a French Canadian folk band that played on Montreal’s CKAC radio station every week. Every summer, he and his band would tour around Quebec, entertaining towns, villages and church audiences. Throughout those years, his band mates kept his real identity from public knowledge, because Alex Bernard was really Bernard Wexler, a classically trained violinist from Romania, and a Jew.

Click on the video link in the Media section to listen to Jerry Wexler, Bernard’s son, tell his father’s story.

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Part of the Interactive Museum of Jewish Montreal’s Stories Project, which aims to collect, preserve and share the diverse stories of Montreal’s Jewish experience.

Created by Nicholas van Beek. Produced by Nicholas van Beek and Zev Moses. Interview with Jerry Wexler. Images courtesy of Jerry Wexler and the Canadian Jewish Congress Charities Committee Archives. Music by Bernard Wexler, courtesy of Jerry Wexler. Special thank you to the Concordia Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling. Animation by Delphine Wibaux - www.delwibaux.com. Animation music by D’Harmo, “Smog et Mardi Gras”, written by Sam Caron. Animation images courtesy of the Jewish Public Library Archives, Canadian Jewish Congress Charities Committee Archives, les Archives de la ville de Montréal, and the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union Archives, Kheel Centre, Cornell University.

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Media