Defenders of Israel Attempt to Silence Anti-Racist Educators in Philadelphia

On Feb. 29, 2024, Hannah Gann, a social studies teacher in Philadelphia with extended family in Palestine-Israel, woke up to devastating news. Hours earlier in Gaza, Israeli troops opened fire on a crowd of starving Palestinians in Gaza City as they lined up to receive flour from aid trucks. Israeli soldiers killed at least 112 Palestinians and wounded more than 750 — many of the victims were children.

“It was horrific, and I was upset.” Gann remembered. “But it was a big day at my school. Our students give a presentation each trimester in lieu of final exams. It was presentation day, and their families were coming to watch, so I had to pull myself together.” When Gann arrived at her school, she realized the water fountains weren’t working, so she quickly went on Instacart to have bottles of water sent to the school so her students would have something to drink while presenting.

During student presentations, a colleague came into Gann’s classroom and asked, “Is that your truck outside?” Confused, Gann went to the window and saw a large billboard truck parked outside the school. The truck had a picture of Gann wearing a keffiyeh and next to it the words “Hannah Gann: 10th Grade Teacher & Philadelphia’s Leading Antisemite.” The mobile billboard was sent by Accuracy in Media, a right-wing group that receives most of its funding from the richest person in Pennsylvania, billionaire Republican donor and school choice proponent Jeff Yass.

Once her students were finished with their presentations, Gann went out to plead with the driver. “I’ll give you my address if you want to take the truck there,” she offered, “but our students are about to dismiss, and please don’t be parked outside when they do because they are not a part of this and they don’t deserve to be made a part of this.” Gann’s biggest concern was that her students, most of whom were Black, wanted to come to her defense. “I was fully aware that whoever has the money to pay for a billboard truck like that would not hesitate to prosecute a Black teenager who did anything to that truck,” she remembered. According to Gann, the truck driver responded, “I’m getting paid $1,500 a day to be here. There’s nothing you can tell me that’s going to make me mess with that kind of money.”

Gann was upset. “If these outside organizations were really concerned about the safety of my students,” she thought, “shouldn’t they be using their money to make sure they have clean drinking water instead of harassing me?” When she realized another person was filming the conversation, it became obvious the point was to provoke anger and film her reaction. Gann went back into the building, explained the tactic to her students, and encouraged them to ignore the truck. 

Gann is one of several leading anti-racist teachers in Philadelphia targeted for their opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and their support for Palestinians. Although defenders of Israel have long used false accusations of antisemitism to discredit supporters of Palestinians, this repression has intensified over the last year. 

From the Racial Justice Organizing Committee to Philly Educators for Palestine

Most educators in Philadelphia being accused of antisemitism are part of an organization called the Racial Justice Organizing Committee (RJOC). RJOC began as a subcommittee within the Caucus of Working Educators (WE) — a caucus within the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers devoted to social justice unionism. RJOC members planned the first Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Philadelphia during the 2016–2017 school year. In 2021, after years of organizing by RJOC, the Philadelphia school board signed on to the week of action, making it an official school district event.

RJOC activism compelled the school district to create a district-wide Equity Coalition, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) positions at several schools, and a school district DEI office. RJOC also successfully pressured the district to adopt Indigenous People’s Day and release racial demographics of employees to press the need to hire more teachers of color. When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down Philadelphia schools, a city with one of the country’s highest poverty rates, RJOC member Keziah Ridgeway proposed distributing food and necessities at city schools. Groceries 4 Philly distributed $60,000 of needed goods.

Hannah Gann had joined RJOC when she moved to Philadelphia in 2018. After visiting Palestine during the summer of 2023 and participating in a West Bank tour led by Breaking the Silence, an organization of former Israeli soldiers focused on exposing the public to the reality of the occupation, Gann came up with the idea of organizing a training for teachers. 

When Israel responded to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack by unleashing a genocidal campaign on Gaza, the need for such a training intensified. Two other RJOC members, Shaw MacQueen and Keziah Ridgeway, prepared an optional training on the history of Palestine and the current conflict for a district professional development day. Although the workshop was initially approved, after it appeared on the professional development catalog, district officials asked MacQueen and Ridgeway to remove “genocide” from the title. But the same day, before MacQueen and Ridgeway had an opportunity to respond, they were notified the workshop was canceled.

Without school district support, Gann, MacQueen, and Ridgeway began planning a teach-in for educators.

The Repression of Baldi Teachers

On Nov. 15, 2023, Israeli forces raided Al-Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest medical facility. In addition to the patients and medical staff, 2,000 to 3,000 displaced Palestinians were seeking shelter in the building. Thirty-six premature babies had to be taken off incubators because Israeli bombs had earlier destroyed the station supplying them oxygen. 

On the same day in Philadelphia, a group of Palestinian students gathered after school in Caroline Yang’s classroom at Baldi Middle School to create posters to support a ceasefire. Yang was joined by teachers Emily Antrilli and Jordan Kardasz. Philadelphia has the fourth largest Palestinian community in the United States; Baldi has a substantial Palestinian and Muslim population. 

Some Palestinian students had approached Yang, Antrilli, and Kardasz asking why there was no Palestinian flag — but there was an Israeli flag — flying in the school common area’s flags of the world display. Students pointed out the lack of support for Palestinians compared to the outpouring of support at Baldi for Ukrainians the previous year. Students also brought up concerns about teachers who they thought treated them unfairly because they were Palestinian.

Yang, Antrilli, and Kardasz met on the school’s equity team. “Had it been a group of queer students who felt uncomfortable there wasn’t a GSA, I think we would have done the same thing, it just happened to be a group of Palestinian students in the middle of a genocide,” Kardasz said. “We wanted to be allies to them and let them know that they had teachers who they could feel safe around and talk with about what was happening in Palestine.”

The teachers began holding a space for Palestinian and Muslim students to talk after school and students wanted to create posters to hang in the commons alongside a Palestinian flag. Worried about what Kardasz called “a punitive environment toward students” at Baldi, and wanting to protect students from reprisal, the teachers hung the posters on students’ behalf. Within an hour, school administrators removed the posters. Four days later the teachers received notice that they were under disciplinary investigation. All three were shocked. “I assumed this would start a conversation, not disciplinary action,” Yang told Al-Bustan News Service.

All three teachers were new and untenured. They approached their school’s union representatives for support and were refused. They later found out from the testimony submitted during their disciplinary investigation that Jewish members of the building committee expressed distress over a poster that used the phrase “from the river to the sea” and that their building representative advocated to the administration on behalf of those members to ensure the incident was “not being swept under the rug.” The investigation ended with recommendations of five days unpaid suspension, mandatory DEI coaching, and a transfer to another school at the end of the year. 

In January, looking for support, they attended the Palestine teach-in organized by Gann, MacQueen, Ridgeway, and others. Out of the teach-in emerged Philly Educators for Palestine (PEFP).

A Student Podcast Sparks Repression and Organizing

The next month, after the International Court of Justice ruled that it was “plausible” Israel had committed genocide and as Israel prepared for a ground invasion of Rafah, the repression of students and teachers in Philadelphia intensified. 

At Northeast, Philadelphia’s largest and most diverse high school, Keziah Ridgeway asked her African American history students to compare a modern-day Indigenous or oppressed group who used art as resistance with Black people’s use of spirituals and poetry. Two students created a podcast using Palestinian art. Ridgeway thought the podcast was outstanding and would contribute to the school’s Black History Month assemblies. She sent the podcast to the school principal who approved playing it. But another teacher who attended the first assembly claimed the podcast was antisemitic and forwarded it to a newly formed organization, the Jewish Family Association. Although the podcast did not mention Jews or Zionism, they launched an email campaign to district officials arguing the focus on Palestinian resistance implied that Jewish people were the oppressor.

District officials removed the video from the remaining assemblies. “It was gut-wrenching for me,” Ridgeway told Al-Bustan News Service. “You never want to tell a child who has put in that much time and effort that you can’t show it to the school because some adults were uncomfortable. . . . I cried a lot that day.”

The Jewish Family Association partnered with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia to pressure the school board to act against teachers they deemed antisemitic. Jewish Family Association members wrote, calling for Ridgeway’s removal, arguing that she “cannot continue to incite violence and indoctrination against Jewish students and faculty.” On behalf of the Jewish Family Association, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.

In July, the ADL filed its own Title VI complaint. In the complaint, the ADL advocates for the “suspension and expulsion” of students and the “suspension and termination” of teachers, who the ADL deems to have engaged in “discriminatory conduct.” The ADL scrutinizes three unnamed teachers’ social media posts and asserts that when these teachers use the term “Zionists” on their social media, it is “an ill-disguised code word for Jews.” They offer no evidence for this. Using this framework, the ADL then deems posts such as “Zionism is racism” as antisemitic. The complaint also criticizes posts that are simply critical of Israel and encourage others to protest. (For example, one post they use as evidence simply states, “Until the Israeli regime’s genocidal assault on Gaza stops, we should keep protesting and disrupting in every way possible.”) Canary Mission, a blacklisting and doxxing operation funded by wealthy pro-Israel supporters, including pro-Trump Islamophobic billionaire Sanford Diller, revealed in their “investigation” that the three unnamed teachers were Gann, MacQueen, and Ridgeway — the RJOC members who had led the teach-in back in January.

The ADL complaint also targets Ismael Jimenez, one of the founding members of RJOC who had become the director of social studies curriculum, because of a social media post he made in 2020 that read “Israel is a terrorist state” and for stating in a recent podcast that he viewed part of his job as fighting for the rights of educators to “teach about the genocide in Palestine.” In June, an Accuracy in Media mobile billboard with a big photo of Jimenez, describing him as a “leader of hate” and arguing “This is why Pennsylvania families deserve school choice,” spent the day outside the school district headquarters where Jimenez worked. The truck later parked across the street from Jimenez’s row house blasting an audio track that repeated “shame” over and over.

But the attacks on Philadelphia’s leading anti-racist educators have galvanized supporters. After the podcast incident, PEFP circulated a petition with six demands for the school board, including condemning the genocide, protecting students and teachers under attack, defending the right to teach the history of Palestine, and providing professional development for teachers about the topic. Pro-Palestinian educators, students, and parents began attending school board meetings to express their concern over what was happening — culminating in a protest of hundreds at the May 30 school board meeting.

Protesters gathered outside the School District of Philadelphia headquarters holding banners reading “Ceasefire Now!” and the names of the hundreds of destroyed Gazan schools. In a video created for the social justice media project POPPYN, a student journalist interviewed attendees at the protest. Central High School teacher Tom Quinn argued that the attack on teachers “is an excuse to shut down people trying to teach the truth in the classroom.”

Student speakers at the school board meeting described a hostile anti-Palestinian environment at Northeast High School and across the district. Two Black Muslim sisters at Northeast described being photographed by a pro-Israel teacher for a pin they wore supporting human rights in Sudan and Palestine. Another student described how a teacher had given a Palestinian student detention for refusing to apologize after the teacher overheard the student tell a friend that his family was “trapped in a concentration camp” in Gaza. “I walk into school, and so does every Palestinian student I know, being uncomfortable,” testified Northeast student Amir Mohammad. “For the teachers at my school, even the mention of my family and the brutalities they face is more than enough for me to be punished immediately.” A Jewish student at Masterman Middle School described a teacher being reprimanded for a “Free Palestine” sign on her desk. “I too support a free Palestine,” the student said to the school board. “And I felt like my ability to say what I believe was taken from me.”

The Struggle to Reinstate Ridgeway

As the 2024–25 school year began and the World Health Organization launched a campaign to vaccinate Gazan children against polio, a new complaint was launched against Ridgeway. The Deborah Project — headed by a former Trump lawyer and dedicated to expanding the fight against critical race theory by weaponizing antisemitism, filed the complaint on behalf of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. The complaint takes several of Ridgeway’s social media posts out of context. For example, in September, Ridgeway asked on Instagram whether anyone knew of any Black-owned gun shops in Philadelphia. “After a close family member’s house was broken into, months of being harassed and targeted on social media by Zionists, and moving to a new part of the city after living Uptown for 20 years, I felt vulnerable and anxious and wanted to protect my family,” Ridgeway stated. In another post she quotes the Cash Box Kings lyric “Ain’t no fun when the rabbit got the gun.” The Deborah Project strings these posts together with others to argue Ridgeway is making “threats of violence against members of the Philadelphia Jewish community.” Within hours of the complaint being filed, an article reinforcing the Deborah Project’s complaint appeared on the website of the Philadelphia Inquirer. By the end of the day, Ridgeway had been unassigned from her classroom pending an investigation.

Teachers, parents, and students across the city rallied to Ridgeway’s defense. A petition asking for Ridgeway to be reinstated quickly garnered more than 2,750 signatures. Philadelphia Parents for Palestine published dozens of letters in support of Ridgeway. “This is exactly what we were raised to be afraid of,” said Rouz Lami, a Palestinian parent of three Northeast High School students. “If Ms. Ridgeway doesn’t go back, what does that show our kids? It shows you really have to stop talking about Palestine or you can lose your job.”

On Oct. 24, Ridgeway’s supporters shut down the school board meeting demanding she be reinstated. Before supporters took over the meeting unfurling a large “Reinstate Ridgeway” banner, students, parents, and educators spoke powerfully to Ridgeway’s record. Northeast teacher Katherine Riley told the board Ridgeway’s “removal from the classroom at the behest of outside groups has essentially halted her students’ education for nearly seven weeks.” She also called for the resignation of school board member Joan Stern, “whose role as a trustee with the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia — the primary complainant against Mrs. Ridgeway that triggered her removal — presents a conflict of interest.” Central High School teacher Nick Palazzolo also testified about Ridgeway:

When the pandemic forced schools to close in 2020, Keziah did not throw her hands up as so many did. She got to work with Liz Wesley and launched a virtual class teaching African American history to students from across the city. Later that same year, we witnessed many of our students advocating for anti-racist policies in their schools. Keziah worked with Hannah Gann to mentor these students in a citywide Black Student Union. . . . This is who you removed from Northeast. A teacher who cares passionately for students, their minds, and their well-being. . . . For years I have been reading about book bans and teachers being fired for assigning authors like Ta-Nehisi Coates. But not in Philly. Not until this year.

Jethro Heiko, a Jewish Northeast high school parent, explained that the year his daughter took Ridgeway’s class she “had literally the best school year of any sophomore I’ve ever encountered.” He added, “The fact that now at Northeast High sophomores and juniors started their school year with seven weeks absent of one of the best teachers in our district is unacceptable.”

On Nov. 21, 2024, the same day the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant, Ridgeway’s supporters again spoke out at the Philadelphia school board meeting. Facing new regulations prohibiting “signs on sticks” and “noisemakers,” supporters repeatedly played the video podcast that Ridgeway’s students had created — and the school district had censored — both inside the meeting room and on a projector outside the building. 

Students from Northeast High School again spoke powerfully. “After months of speakers, especially students, testifying for Ms. Keziah Ridgeway, you still choose to listen to outside groups that have no affiliation to me or any other student at Northeast High School,” said Hazel Heiko.

“There are very few teachers who openly advocate for and support Palestinian and Muslim students. Without [Ridgeway] in the school, these students feel unsafe,” expressed Sophia Thompson. “You say you want to support the students of Philadelphia, yet you are the core of these problems that students at my school face.”

A final decision about Ridgeway’s removal is expected in early 2025. In a letter obtained by Rethinking Schools, more than 50 Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT) members called on their union leadership to take a more “public stand to support our fellow PFT members who are under attack for teaching truth.” 

Yang, Antrilli, and Kardasz resigned after being disciplined for supporting Palestinian students and filed a Title VI complaint accusing the district of discriminating against Palestinians. After their story was told in the Intercept supporters showed up at December school board meetings holding copies of the censored student posters.

“You took teachers away from their classroom wrongfully, but you can’t take away their love for the youth and the hope that they bring to us,” high school student Aster Chau told the school board. “To all the teachers . . . you are not defeated because you have us and we have you.”

Breaking Through the Backlash 

The attacks on social justice educators in Philadelphia are part of a national trend. A survey of 467 school superintendents found that U.S. public schools have spent $3.2 billion during the 2023–24 school year fending off right-wing campaigns. These attacks support efforts to privatize public schools by removing outstanding educators from the classroom during a teacher shortage and diverting resources from public schools starved for funds. 

Philadelphia is just one example of pro-Israel activists bringing the war on teaching truth into blue cities previously untouched by campaigns against teaching about racism. Seattle is another. Accuracy in Media mobile billboards have targeted anti-racist teachers there as well. In the lead-up to the 17th annual Northwest Teaching for Social Justice Conference, one of the largest regional K–12 social justice teaching conferences in the country, pro-Israel activists made calls and sent letters to Seattle and Washington state officials — including Gov. Jay Inslee — imploring them to cancel the conference because of its focus on teaching Palestine. (The conference went on as scheduled, attracting almost 700 educators.) 

This new McCarthyism must be exposed and stopped. It’s also crucial that we find ways to keep hope alive through these tough times. Hannah Gann draws hope both from the Palestinians who continue to struggle for freedom despite overwhelming odds and from the past. “As a history teacher, I know how many generations it took to tear down certain structures of oppression,” Gann said. “I think about enslaved people in the United States who made freedom quilts to pass down to their children, and their children, with the radical hope that one day these quilts would be inherited by a generation that was free.”

For Keziah Ridgeway, hope comes from the community forged in struggle: 

What gives me hope in challenging times is the beautiful community of like-minded people that surround me . . . parents, students, friends, and family members who allow their morals and integrity to be a guiding light in these perilous times. For someone like me who’s so used to never asking for help, I’ve recently had to. In doing so, it has opened my eyes to the true extent of community that exists. This is the community — built on integrity and respect for life — that will use all the skills at our disposal to build a world free of oppression and welcoming to all.