In 1975, Jason Sherman received a certificate for his bar mitzvah. Instead of a regular savings bond, the certificate explained that a tree had been planted in Israel, in his name, by the Jewish National Fund. Now a playwright and documentary filmmaker, Sherman wanted to find that tree in what is today known as Canada Park, a 700-hectare Israeli national park—but one with a controversial history of appropriated Palestinian land. Sherman joins to talk about his new film, My Tree, which debuts at the Hot Docs festival this week.

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Melissa Lantsman and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew Goulet is the technical producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a production of The Jewish Learning Lab and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network.