Philly Teacher Hannah Gann Admits She Lied About Her Black and Palestinian Identity
A Philadelphia teacher is facing backlash after reportedly admitting that she fabricated parts of her racial and ethnic background.
Hannah Gann, a 10th-grade teacher at the Workshop School, had presented herself in left-wing activist circles as a mixed-race woman with Black and Palestinian heritage. According to reports from the New York Post and Philadelphia Inquirer, that story unraveled after activists began questioning her background.
Gann addressed the controversy in an Instagram post, writing, “I lied about my identity and have been lying for years. I have no Palestinian or Tunisian heritage,”
She continued, “I am a white woman of significant privilege and wealth. Anyone who supported me was manipulated and should not be judged as a result of their support for me,”
In a follow-up video, Gann offered another apology and described how she had concealed the truth from people around her.
“I hid the truth or outright lied about my background to everyone in my life,” she stated.
Gann also said she “allowed half-truths and obfuscations to grow into outright lies” because she “genuinely wanted to commit to the work I was doing.”
The Post reported that Gann further acknowledged taking “resources from CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations) and other movement orgs. I am so sorry for all the harm I have caused.”
The report also focused on Gann’s family background. The Post described her as white and Israeli, with much of her family still living in Israel. That revelation drew additional attention because Gann had been outspoken against Israel and had reportedly been labeled “Philadelphia’s Leading Antisemite” on a mobile billboard outside the school where she worked.
One former University of Pennsylvania classmate told the Inquirer that Gann had previously described herself as “a white Jewish woman with family in the occupied West Bank.”
The classmate also alleged that Gann’s appearance and manner changed after she returned to Philadelphia from the Peace Corps in Rwanda.
“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 classmate told the paper.
According to the reports, the claims came to a head during a meeting with members of two local activist groups: the Racial Justice Organizing Committee and Philly Educators for Palestine.
The groups said members questioned Gann about her background for about an hour. They said she ultimately admitted that she had lied.
“Members met with Hannah and questioned her about her background on Thursday, and after an hour of discussion, Hannah finally admitted she lied,” the groups told the Inquirer.
The organizations said they asked Gann to publicly acknowledge that she was a white woman of Jewish heritage and came from an Israeli settler family. They described themselves as “stunned, saddened, and angered by this betrayal.”
The controversy now places Gann’s past activism, public identity, and role as a teacher under intense scrutiny. Her own statements, as reported by the Post and Inquirer, have fueled questions about how long the false claims continued and how they affected the people and organizations that supported her.