MISHKAN TORAH ADULT EDUCATION PRESENTS THE WORLD OF ADOPTION ON NOVEMBER 17

November is National Adoption Awareness Month. In commemoration, the Mishkan Torah Adult Education is presenting a program about adoption starting at 10:30 am on November 17. 2013. Local adoption reformers Nicole Burton , Dr. Julie Lopez, and Linda Clausen will present an award-winning 60-minute film, Adoption - For the Life of Me, and lead a discussion afterward

Nicole Burton, a Mishkan Torah member, is an adopted person born and raised in Great Britain who came to the United States with her adopted family as a teenager. She went back to Britain to search for her birth parents 12 years later when the law was changed to open up records. Ms. Burton is the author of Swimming Up the Sun; A Memoir of Adoption.

The film to be shown, Adoption- For the Life of Me,which aired in 2011 on PBS,explores the world of adoption from the adopted person's perspective. It was made by New York Times bestselling author Jean Strauss, who has been documenting adoption issues for over two decades. Using interviews and humor, this warm-hearted film shows how the continuing culture of closed records and secrecy harms the very people adoption is meant to help. The event is free and open to the entire community.