During the question period, Mary Lefkowitz, a Wellesley classicist, asked how Aristotle could have stolen his philosophy from the library at Alexandria when Aristotle had died before the library was even built. Mr. ben-Jochannan replied that he resented the "tone" of her question, while her colleagues maintained an embarrassed silence. After the lecture, several students came up to Ms. Lefkowitz to accuse her of racism. When she went to the dean to describe the lecture, he replied that everyone had a different but "equally valid" view of history. At a faculty meeting, one of her colleagues told her: "I don't care who stole what from whom."
