A Philadelphia public school teacher who spent years positioning herself as a Palestinian American voice in local activist circles has admitted she is white and Jewish, and that she lied about her background for years. Hannah Gann teaches social studies at the Workshop School, a project-based Philadelphia School District high school, and the reckoning over her identity has now upended two organizations she helped build.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Gann acknowledged lying about her identity for years after the Racial Justice Organizing Committee and Philly Educators for Palestine — two groups she was involved with — questioned her about her background. Per the Inquirer, the two organizations said that after roughly an hour of discussion, Gann finally admitted she had lied. She had previously claimed Palestinian and Black heritage, the paper reported.
In her own words, shared with the Inquirer, Gann described herself bluntly: “a white woman of significant privilege and wealth.” She went further, saying, “I hid the truth or outright lied about my background to everyone in my life,” and added that she had allowed “half-truths and obfuscations” to grow into outright lies. Still, she maintained she wanted to keep doing her activist work, telling the paper, “I genuinely wanted to commit to the work I was doing in spite of those lies.”
A Public Identity Built Over Years
A Public Identity Built Over Years According to Rethinking Schools, Gann joined the city’s Racial Justice Organizing Committee after moving to Philadelphia in 2018.
Her activism later expanded into Palestine solidarity work. Rethinking Schools reported that Gann visited Palestine in the summer of 2023 and joined a West Bank tour led by Breaking the Silence, and that a teach-in she helped organize gave rise to Philly Educators for Palestine. In 2024, the Inquirer reported, Gann took part in a West Philadelphia teach-in on the destruction of educational infrastructure in Gaza, with materials from the event identifying her as Palestinian American.
Billboard Attack and a Defense of a Fellow Teacher
Gann’s public profile also made her a target. Rethinking Schools reported that on February 29, 2024, a mobile billboard circulated in Philadelphia bearing her photo in a keffiyeh alongside the words “Hannah Gann: 10th Grade Teacher & Philadelphia’s Leading Antisemite.” Around the same period, the Inquirer reported, Gann was a leading voice defending fellow Philadelphia teacher Keziah Ridgeway, who was disciplined by the district over pro-Palestinian social media posts.
The Philadelphia School District has confirmed only limited details about the current fallout. The district said it was aware of social media posts concerning a district employee and her involvement with an outside advocacy organization, according to the Inquirer, and said it was making support available to any affected Workshop School staff and students. The district did not comment on whether Gann faces any personnel consequences.
Groups Say They Have Cut Ties
Groups Say They Have Cut Ties The Racial Justice Organizing Committee and Philly Educators for Palestine have moved beyond confronting Gann to formally distancing themselves from her. The Inquirer reported that the two groups said they have permanently cut ties with Gann, describing the alleged deception as a betrayal.
The story has since drawn national attention, with the New York Post dubbing Gann the “Palestinian Rachel Dolezal,” a reference to the former NAACP chapter president the Post described as having masqueraded as a Black woman despite being white. The comparison underscores how Gann’s case has become shorthand in wider debates over fabricated identity within activist movements, even as key questions — including whether any investigation into her has concluded, or whether she remains employed at the Workshop School — remain unresolved.
