Jewish Philadelphia teacher admits lying about being Black and Palestinian, cut loose by activist groups

Hannah Gann, a Philadelphia teacher and activist who publicly presented herself as Black and Palestinian, has admitted lying about her background, prompting two organizations she worked with to cut ties with her.

Gann, who teaches at the Workshop School in Philadelphia, was a longtime member of the Racial Justice Organizing Committee, or RJOC, and Philly Educators for Palestine, or PEFP. She became increasingly active in racial-justice and pro-Palestinian activism following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, including speaking publicly about what she described as a “scholasticide” in Gaza.

Over the weekend, RJOC and PEFP issued a joint statement saying they had determined that Gann had “completely lied about her identity and background.”

The organizations said Gann had claimed to be Palestinian, Tunisian and Black and called upon her to publicly acknowledge that she is a white woman of Jewish heritage from “a family of Israeli settlers.” Gann subsequently acknowledged in a video posted to Instagram that she had concealed or lied about her background.

“We will no longer work with Hannah, and she will no longer be welcome in any of our organizing spaces,” the organizations said. “We recognize the profound harm caused by this: to Palestinians whose identity and struggle were appropriated, to the Black community, to young people, activists and organizations whose trust and resources were exploited.”

They also said they were shocked, saddened and appalled by “this betrayal.”

According to a friend who knew Gann in college and recently saw her again for the first time in many years, Gann had “clearly made herself look darker through makeup and artificial tanning, and began speaking in African American English.”

Gann also claimed that her grandfather had been “born in Palestine,” although reporting on the controversy has found that he was born in Baltimore. She also said she needed to send money to relatives in Palestine and raised donations for that stated purpose, as well as for her own financial needs.

Gann had been a visible figure in Philadelphia's education activism following Oct. 7. In 2024, she participated in a West Philadelphia teach-in focused on “scholasticide” in Gaza.

Sharif El-mekki, founder of the Center for Black Educator Development, criticized Gann's actions in social media posts, writing that he found her lies “disturbing, infuriating and enraging.”

He argued that Gann's ability to apologize after being exposed reflects a privilege that people who actually belong to the communities she claimed to represent do not necessarily have.

“Actual Palestinians, Muslims, Arabs, Black people and Africans cannot put their identities aside when the consequences arrive,” he lamented. “They cannot choose not to become targets of suspicion, surveillance, hostility or professional consequences tied to who they actually are.”

Gann responded in an Instagram video, saying that one of the most painful aspects of the controversy was seeing the effect her actions had on causes and communities she said she cared about.

“One of the most upsetting aspects of confronting what I did is seeing how the backlash is harming people, groups, communities and causes that I genuinely care about. I understand that it is too late for me to repair all the harm I have caused, but I am determined to try to do everything I can," she said.

“I concealed the truth or outright lied about my background to every person in my life. There is not a single person on Earth who knew what I had done," she emphasized.

"The fact that I lied about my identity does not mean that every other person speaking out for Palestine is lying, and it does not diminish the urgency of listening to voices on the ground — voices that are courageously telling us about an ongoing genocide, even as the Israeli state deliberately marks journalists and others who speak the truth as targets for elimination," Gann concluded.