It was a second
birth that they were witnessing, an experience which they had
once gone through themselves and which was one of the greatest
events in their lives.
"Green one" or "greenhorn" is one of the many English words and
phrases which my mother-tongue has appropriated in England and
America. Thanks to the many millions of letters that pass annually
between the Jews of Russia and their relatives in the United
States, a number of these words have by now come to be generally
known among our people at home as well as here. In the eighties,
however, one who had not visited any English-speaking country
was utterly unfamiliar with them. And so I had never heard of
"green one" before. Still, "green," in the sense of color, is Yiddish
as well as English, so I understood the phrase at once, and as a
contemptuous quizzical appellation for a newly arrived,
inexperienced immigrant it stung me cruelly. As I went along I
heard it again and again. Some of the passers-by would call me
"greenhorn" in a tone of blighting gaiety, but these were an
exception.
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