Hannah Gann, a 10th grade social studies teacher at the Workshop School — a public magnet high school in West Philadelphia — darkened her skin with makeup and fake tan, adopted African American Vernacular English, and told everyone in her life she was Palestinian. At various points she also claimed to be Tunisian and Black. She is none of those things.
She's a white Jewish woman from an Israeli settler family who described herself, after getting caught, as someone of "significant privilege and wealth."
The unraveling came when two activist groups Gann had embedded herself in — the Racial Justice Organizing Committee and Philly Educators for Palestine — started asking questions about her background. They sat her down for a meeting. It took over an hour of questioning before Gann finally cracked and admitted the whole thing was fabricated. The groups, along with the Philly Palestine Coalition, issued a joint statement saying they were "stunned, saddened and angered by this betrayal" and that Gann would no longer be welcome.
Gann posted a confession on Instagram that read like it was drafted by a crisis communications firm. "I lied about my identity and have been lying for years," she wrote. "I have no Palestinian or Tunisian heritage." She added: "I hid the truth or outright lied about my background to everyone in my life."
The scale of the deception wasn't small. In February 2024, Gann was prominent enough in pro-Palestinian activism that a right-wing group drove a mobile billboard through Philadelphia calling her "Philadelphia's Leading Antisemite." The irony of that billboard hitting a woman who is, in fact, Jewish and from an Israeli settler family is the kind of detail a screenwriter would cut for being too on-the-nose.
Gann's explanation for years of ethnic cosplay was that she "genuinely wanted to commit to the work" and "allowed half-truths and obfuscations to grow into outright lies." That's an interesting way to describe applying fake tan, changing how you talk, and claiming three separate ethnicities that aren't yours. Half-truths don't usually require a trip to the cosmetics counter.
She also offered this: "One of the ways I justified my unjustifiable deceptions was by telling myself that it was OK because I only lied about myself." Only lied about herself. She was teaching social studies to high school students while performing an identity she invented. Monique Braxton, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia School District, said the district made support available to students and staff but declined to comment on personnel matters.
Keziah Ridgeway, a fellow Philadelphia teacher and pro-Palestinian activist who had known Gann since 2018, was blindsided. Ridgeway had publicly defended Gann. She found out the truth not from her friend of eight years but from members of the Palestine Coalition who had done the digging Gann's colleagues never thought to do.
The comparisons to Rachel Dolezal wrote themselves — Haaretz dubbed Gann the "Palestinian Rachel Dolezal" — but this version is arguably worse. Dolezal claimed to be Black while leading an NAACP chapter. Gann claimed to be Palestinian, Black, and Tunisian while teaching children in a public school and embedding herself in racial justice organizations that exist specifically to center the voices she was faking.
Her own apology contained the most revealing line of all: "One of the most sickening aspects of facing what I've done is seeing the way that the blowback is falling on people, groups, communities." Not sickening that she lied. Sickening that other people are catching heat for believing her.