Hannah Gann, a teacher (at least for now), in Philadelphia’s public school system, was recently outed for having lied about her race and ethnicity.
Gann is a Jew with roots in Baltimore, but pretended to be, alternately, Black, Tunisian and Palestinian, cosmetically altering her appearance and adopting a certain way of speaking that led people to believe she was “one of them.”
The “them” was clearly “not white.” The ruse worked for a while, but as most lies tend to do, it unraveled. And then the melodrama ensued.
Blacks, Palestinians and I’m assuming one or two Tunisians were apoplectic they had been fooled, that the Keffiyah had been pulled over their eyes, so to speak. The pain and anguish of her Free Palestine buddies was palpable on social media and in news articles, where they breathlessly expressed shock, anger, and a sense of betrayal that Miss Gann was, horror of horrors, a Jew.
As I read the reactions from Gann’s former friends, it struck me how incredibly narcissistic they were. They had no problem when she was spouting anti-Jewish and anti-Israel propaganda as a member of the tribe.
They welcomed her with a touching naivete. Who knew that not combing your hair and wearing a foundation two shades darker than your skin color could gain entrée into an exclusive club.
We can call it “Tan Face,” a different version of the Black Face that white people employed in the early part of the last century for entertainment at the expense of minorities.
But when these people who traffic in anti-Semitic lies realized she was actually from a very different branch of the Tree of Abraham, they choked.
“All mistakes and deceptions are mine and mine alone. Please do not let them affect how you engage with any people, organizations, causes, or communities to which I was connected,” Gann said on Instagram. “Please reach out if you know me and want to have a direct conversation about how I hurt you. I will regret causing this hurt for the rest of my life.”
After taking a sip of tea and a nibble of falafel, she continued on another post:
“I lied about my identity and have been lying for years. I have no Palestinian or Tunisian heritage. I am a white woman of significant privilege and wealth,” Gann said. “Anyone who supported me was manipulated and should not be judged as a result of their support for me.”
It’s doubtful anyone is judging Gann because of the people who support her. They are as bad as she is, only they don’t need to lie.
They are brutally honest about their bigotry, marching in the streets screaming anti-Jewish slurs and calling for the annihilation of Israel while celebrating the deaths of Jewish children and women on Oct. 7. They are open about their bigotry, and embrace it.
Gann is being judged by both her former allies and the people who were against her from the beginning, only no one actually knew how justified that anger really was.
It is one thing to have an enemy who is clear about who she is and why she hates you, it is quite another to have someone from your own tribe try and destroy you.
There is nothing worse than a self-hating creature, whether it be an Italian from South Philly who actually swallows the idiocy that Columbus was a genocidal maniac, a Catholic who supports Planned Parenthood or a Jew who gives comfort to the people who celebrate her ancestors’ deaths.
The psychology of that sort of person is difficult to gauge, but it has something to do with a sense of self-loathing and a desire to belong to the “in” crowd.
I call it “identity suicide,” and I attribute it to the fact some people are so desperate to be loved that they will sacrifice their own families, and their own souls, to gain entrée into the desired club.
It is very much like the light-skinned Black woman Sarah Jane in “Imitation of Life,” who tries so hard to pass for white and only learns when it is too late that you cannot run away from your roots. They are incredibly elastic, and will always pull you back home, even against your will.
Hannah Gann did not betray the Black, Brown, Palestinian and Tunisian folk by whom she so desperately wanted to be accepted.
She betrayed the young Jewish students who cannot walk down the street without looking over their shoulders in trepidation, who are afraid to wear the Star of David around their necks, who are forced to listen to lies about their heritage and their people, and who are gaslighted into accepting that there is a genocide in Gaza, but that the Holocaust is a myth.
Perhaps Hannah should take to Instagram and, in this somber time after Yom Kippur, and beg forgiveness for being a traitor to her family, to her people, and to the truth.
Copyright 2026 Christine Flowers
