About 30 students gathered in the Shapiro Theater Wednesday night to watch a screening of The Forgotten Refugees, a film about the one million Jews forced to flee violent anti-Semitism in their indigenous Arab countries, especially around the time of the creation of the modern state of Israel.According to the film, these refugees now comprise nearly half of Israel's five million Jews. The film also explained that these Jews, who have inhabited these regions since the Biblical era, now number less than 40,000. It portrayed once-spirited synagogues, homes and entire neighborhoods now devoid of life.

The film showed statistics of Jewish-Arabian populations in 1945 that totaled roughly one million, including 140,000 in Iraq, 60,000 in Yemen, 35,000 in Syria, 5,000 in Lebanon, 90,000 in Egypt and 60,000 in Libya.

A Middle Eastern woman who immigrated to the United States three years ago spoke following the screening. She is one of the last remaining Jews in her nation, and asked that her name and home country be withheld because she fears for the safety of her family still in the country. She said watching the film evoked memories of the culture she was forced to flee, and of her family's suppression of their religion to avoid discrimination.

"It's a hiding life," she said. "You can't live in public with your own identity."

In the movie, refugees and their children also testified to the great cultural loss caused by their exile, both to themselves and to the Middle East. They said that they still treasure the memory of the Jewish-Arabian society-vibrant and cultured for thousands of years-that now lies in ruins.

Crowd members reacted with admiration for her dedication to the Jewish religion and culture.

The young Middle Eastern woman, who recently graduated from a Boston-area university, said her religious devotion came from her parents, who told her, "Don't think you're going to convert just to get an easier life."

The event, sponsored by Zionists for Historical Veracity, the department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, the Brandeis Zionist Association and Hillel, invited Avi Goldwasser of the David Project and the young woman to view the film.

Goldwasser serves on the board of directors for the David Project, a Jewish group that promotes public awareness of the Arab-Israeli conflict through education and raises consciousness of anti-Semitism and rivaling its prevalence.