"I am looking now at the immigrants who arecoming from Soviet Russia," he said. "We have hadhalf a million of them" and some thing must bedone, Peres said.

Dr. Bernard Steinberg, the director of theHarvard-Radcliffe Hillel, said that he foundPeres' thinking to be strongly informed by Jewishtradition.

"He frames his political perspective in thelarger context of Jewish tradition," Steinbergsaid. "That's the lens through which he evaluatescurrent events."

Organizers of the event billed Peres'appearance as a timely discussion of the peaceprocess. "An Arab-Israeli Peace: A Promise for theFuture" was sponsored by the Harvard-RadcliffeHillel, the Consulate General of Israel and theGreater Hillel Council of Boston.

Elie G. Kaunfer '95 who is chair of theHarvard-Radcliffe Hillel, said he found Peresremarks full of optimism.

"The most important theme that he seemed toemphasize was the fact that he was very optimisticand was determined to achieve peace," saidKaunfer, who is senior editor of The Crimson.

The speech was televised to other colleges inthe Boston area, including the University ofMassachusetts at Amherst, according to Rabbi SallyD. Finestone, who is associate director of theHarvard-Radcliffe Hillel.

The question-and-answer format brought bothpraise and criticism from those watching.

"He gives a lot of speeches around the countryand the thing I like best is that he gave a lot ofstudents the chance to interact with him,"Finestone said.

But some students said they would havepreferred a more formal presentation.

"I was disappointed that there was no speech,"said Ari K. Tuchman '97. "Because it wasquestion-and-answer, he didn't really sayanything. But I thought he handled the questionsvery well and thought he was a good speaker."

About 450 tickets for the event weredistributed to Harvard students. Other were givento 100 students from area universities, andvarious other religious and political leaders alsoattended.

For those in the audience, just squeezing intoAlumni Hall was an ordeal.

Those who arrived 45 minutes early found noline in front of the security guards, but thosecoming any later discovered a huge line that movedslowly through a set of double doors.

"Do you know that I have been waitingfor--oh--twenty-five minutes?" one womancomplained as she finally slid into her aisleseat.