Thursday, September 18
Noon
Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein
Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited
$9, Discounted Member Price $6
Bring a vegetarian lunch or pre-order from the JCC Café at (202) 387-3246.

Identical Strangers is the amazing story of two women coming to terms with the strange and unbelievable hand fate has dealt them—that, though each was adopted into separate families, they are identical twins. Their account broadens the confines of what “family” truly means, and offers insight into the effect that DNA has on our lives. Paula and Elyse write with emotional honesty about the intimacy they feel as twins, despite the fact that for much of their lives they were complete strangers. Interweaving eye-opening studies and statistics on twin science into their narrative, they offer an intelligent and heartfelt glimpse into human nature.

Elyse Schein is a writer and filmmaker. Her short films I Steal Happiness and Private Dick have been shown at the Telluride Film Festival and at cinemas in Prague and San Francisco. She is a graduate of SUNY Stony Brook University and studied film at FAMU, Prague’s Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts. She has previously worked as an English teacher, photographer and translator. Schein lives in Brooklyn.

Paula Bernstein is a freelance writer whose work has been published in The New York Times, New York, The Village Voice and Redbook, among other publications. Formerly a reporter at Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, Bernstein has also been a regular contributor to CNN. A graduate of Wellesley College, she has a master’s degree in cinema studies from New York University.

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