Philadelphia white teacher exposed after falsely claiming to be black, Palestinian

A Philadelphia teacher has come under fire for reportedly pretending to be of black and Palestinian heritage. Hannah Gann, a longtime educator with the Philadelphia School District, is now being compared to the infamous Rachel Dolezal, with activists saying Gann has "betrayed" them with her years-long false claims.

It turns out Gann is a white Jewish woman and admitted to lying about her background for years, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

"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 to the paper. "We asked her to publicly acknowledge that she is a white woman of Jewish heritage and an Israeli settler family."

Gann was highly involved with both groups before her ousting over the matter. The groups said they are "stunned, saddened and angered by this betrayal," according to the paper.



The Philly educator took to Instagram to admit her hoax, saying she is a "white woman of significant privilege and wealth." She added: "I hid the truth or outright lied about my background to everyone in my life. 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."

She said that she had pure intentions but allowed "obfuscations to grow into outright lies."

Gann, a teacher at the Workshop School, helped lead anti-Israel activism following the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel. She participated in a "teach-in" and "scholasticide" in Gaza in 2024, according to the paper. Gann also described herself in her biography as a Palestinian American.