Call Me Gebyanesh

"Highly recommended." —Jewish Book Council

Gebyanesh Addisu teams up with co-author Arlene Schenker to turn her experiences as a young immigrant struggling in a new and strange place into a universal story about the importance of name to identity and being true to yourself and your culture.

Will I ever belong here? Gebyanesh asked herself that very question on her first day in her new school in her new country. Her family had just moved to Jerusalem from Ethiopia, and already she was feeling unsettled by how different everything was. This was only made worse when her teacher could not pronounce her name—and wouldn't really even try. "We will call you Rakhel," the teacher said. That isn't my name, Gebyanesh thought. But she said nothing.

From then on, she was Rakhel at school and Gebyanesh at home. She didn't want to tell her parents about her struggles, but when they saw her Israeli name on some of her schoolwork, she couldn't hold her frustrations back anymore. She would need their help to learn more about her heritage, her name, and how to stand up for herself.

For young Gebyanesh, every­thing in Israel is dif­fer­ent from the home she left — the food, the smells, the sounds, and even her name! On the first day of school, Gebyanesh’s teacher decides that her name is too dif­fi­cult to pro­nounce and declares her Rakhel. This col­or­ful­ly illus­trat­ed book then pro­ceeds to share Gebyanesh’s chal­lenges in her new home. She reflects, “‘I’m so dif­fer­ent from the Israeli kids. I know we’re all Jew­ish, but I look dif­fer­ent, my lunch­es are dif­fer­ent, and every­thing in Israel is dif­fer­ent! I do love my name, and I don’t like pre­tend­ing that I’m Rakhel when I’m Gebyanesh on the inside!’”

Ulti­mate­ly, Gebyanesh stands up to her teacher and asserts her iden­ti­ty. She teach­es us all the impor­tance of being true to yourself.

This high­ly rec­om­mend­ed book can be appre­ci­at­ed for the pieces of Ethiopi­an cul­ture woven into its words and illus­tra­tions, and for its poten­tial as a valu­able spring­board for dis­cus­sions about iden­ti­ty with chil­dren. It’s sure to res­onate with any­one who has ever felt out of place — and who hasn’t?" —Jewish Book Council