A Philadelphia teacher pretended to be Black and Palestinian, ‘a betrayal’ of the activists she supported

A Philadelphia teacher is being called the “Palestinian Rachel Dolezal” after being caught lying about her background — a deception that has stirred strong emotions in education and racial justice organizing circles.

Hannah Gann, a veteran Philadelphia School District educator, has claimed at times to be Palestinian and Black, and was so outspoken a mobile billboard once parked outside her school calling her “Philadelphia’s Leading Antisemite.”

But Gann, it turns out, is white and Jewish, and lied about her identity for years.

“Members met with Hannah and questioned her about her background on Thursday and after an hour of discussion, Hannah finally admitted she lied,” the Racial Justice Organizing Committee and Philly Educators for Palestine said in a statement. Gann had been a visible member of both groups. “We asked her to publicly acknowledge that she is a white woman of Jewish heritage and an Israeli settler family.”

The groups are “stunned, saddened and angered by this betrayal,” their statement said. They said they have permanently cut ties with Gann.

Gann, in an Instagram post, admitted the years-long fabrication. She said she was “a white woman of significant privilege and wealth.”

“I hid the truth or outright lied about my background to everyone in my life,” Gann said in a video post. “There is not a single person on this planet, no friend, no fellow organizer, no one in my family, no professional connection, no secret op or handler who knew what I was doing. I hid my family’s background from everyone in Philly and also hid from the people in my own family what I was doing.”

Gann said she “allowed half-truths and obfuscations to grow into outright lies”, but that she “genuinely wanted to commit to the work I was doing in spite of those lies”.

Gann, who teaches at The Workshop School, a project-based Philadelphia School District high school, was front and center in education activism work after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel.

In 2024, for instance, Gann participated in a West Philadelphia “teach-in” on “scholasticide” - the destruction of educational infrastructure - in Gaza. Her biography for that event identified her as a Palestinian American.

And Gann was a leading voice in defending Keziah Ridgeway, a fellow Philadelphia teacher who was disciplined by the district over her private, pro-Palestinian social media posts. (Ridgeway has since sued the district, alleging anti-Islamic bias.)

According to a document compiled by the Philly Palestine Coalition and obtained by The Inquirer, Gann has made frequent referencesto Palestinian family, including a Palestinian-born grandfather whom the PPC found was actually born in Baltimore, citing historical draft records and her great-grandfather’s U.S. naturalization papers. Her family abroad live in Israel, according to the group’s extensive, footnoted research.

Gann told people she was low on money because she was sending cash to family in Palestine, according to the PPC document. Some people sent her money as a result. A University of Pennsylvania classmate of Gann’s said she was known in college “as a self-proclaimed white Jewish woman with family in the occupied West Bank. I watched her sudden transformation after she returned to Philly from the Peace Corps [in Rwanda]. She was clearly making herself look darker using makeup and fake tan, and speaking using [African American Vernacular English.]”

The PPC research document noted that Gann “is a teacher of predominately Black youth. She has gained the trust of young people on the basis of a sense of shared oppression. She has served as a mentor to at least one young white person who was manipulated by Hannah on the basis of a fake identity. Her access to vulnerable young people, especially Black youth, is deeply concerning, given her pattern of lying and manipulation.”

Monique Braxton, a district spokesperson, said the school district was “aware of social media posts concerning a district employee and her involvement with an outside advocacy organization. These posts reference the employee’s involvement in an external group.”

The district is making support available to any affected Workshop School staff and students, Braxton said. As for possible consequences for Gann, Braxton said she could not comment on personnel matters.

Gann’s “deception has compromised the safety and security of our movement, with disproportionate harm caused to Palestinians involved in this coalition. This pattern of deceit has rattled many organizers across PPC and allied groups, especially Palestinians, fellow teachers, and individuals who have been engaging with her closely under false pretenses.”

Sharif El-Mekki, a prominent Philadelphia educator and founder of the Center for Black Educator Development, said a person doesn’t have to be Black or Palestinian to support those groups.

“But honesty is the price of entry,” El-Mekki said in a social media post. Gann’s lies are “aggravating, infuriating and enraging,” El-Mekki said, in part because “she gets to apologize after being exposed and, eventually, return to the privilege she had all along. Actual Palestinians, Muslims, Arabs, Black people, and African people do not get to put down their identities when the consequences arrive. They cannot opt out of the suspicion, surveillance, hostility, or professional consequences attached to who they really are.”

Gann’s misrepresentations will have real consequences for Black and Palestinian people, El-Mekki said - they’re likely to face more scrutiny because of her lies.

“They will be asked to prove themselves again,” El-Mekki said. “Their grief will be questioned. Their politics will be treated as suspect. Their criticism of the Israeli government may be distorted into antisemitism. Their opportunities may be threatened because someone else chose to use their identities as a costume.”

Gann acknowledged these realities in her video message.

“The fact that I lied about who I was does not mean anyone else who speaks up for Palestine is lying and does not erase the urgency of listening to voices on the ground ... This also extends to the genocide and humanitarian crisis in Sudan that far too many are ignoring the genocide in Congo, the mortally urgent need to address ICE and police brutality here as well as the prison industrial complex, imminent Philly school closings, and more. It probably has little value to hear me say this, but please do not disengage from any of these vitally urgent causes or others you care about based off my dishonesty.”

Local social media has been abuzz about Gann’s deception.

“Is this the first Palestinian Rachel Dolezal?” a poster asked on Reddit, invoking the name of a white former NAACP president who lied about being Black.

“I first and foremost express deep empathy for the Palestinian people and this violation of security and trust,” one observer said on Instagram. “I reject this level of wretched disrespect and trivialization.”