“I turned around to face them. I said, ‘I am a Jew, and I believe in one God,’” he said.

He also stepped back from personal experiences to give audience his perception of the history and persecution of Jews in the Middle East.

“There’s always a way for us to survive, and we’ve always lived under other people,” Wahed said. He noted the important contributions Jews have made to Middle Eastern societies, citing his relatives who helped draft the Egyptian constitution in the 1920s and composed music for several legendary Egyptian singers.

Wahed stressed that the key to overcoming anti-Semitism is understanding.

“Only when I can say, ‘I’m a Jew, and I believe in one God,’ will there be peace,” concluded Wahed to a roomful of applause.

Audience feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

“It’s obviously a story that has not been told very much. I think these events diminish some of the myopia that people have about Middle East and Jewish identity,” said third-year law student Nugzari Jakobishvili, who was born in the country of Georgia.

During the question-and-answer session afterward, however, Joachim C. Martillo ’78 angrily challenged Wahed’s earlier comment that “Arabs are pathological liars.”

“I thought this was another one of those anti-Arab events,” said Martillo. “It met my expectations.”

After the event ended, Wahed said he had misspoken in making that comment and only meant to refer to Arab leaders.