Identity and Exile

A film about the journalist, this time

In the 19th and 20th centuries, millions of Jews migrated from Europe, Eastern Europe and Russia to the US — settling across the country's big cities including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. A growing number of Jews also migrated to Palestine at the turn of the century, part of a nascent Zionist movement. At the end of World War II, following the horrors of the holocaust, the state of Israel was created in what had previously been British-controlled Palestine. In the process, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced to flee their homes, exiled into neighboring countries and refugee camps.

Al Jazeera's Matthew Cassel travels back to his native Chicago where he was raised Jewish. He talks to local rabbis, friends and family about why so many in the Jewish-American community believe it is important to maintain support for Israel — no matter what. And he travels back to Palestine to retrace his steps as a young man. At that time, during the second Intifada, he was shocked to discover the impact Israeli policies were having on Palestinians. He tries to understand how Jewish religious beliefs have turned into a political cause that he does not agree with — but that the US actively accepts and supports.