The approach of the Jewish year 5702 (Summer 1942) was marked by the traditional Ninth of Av, the narrative of which – the destruction of the Temple and the onset of the Jewish exile – was becoming current reality in view of the reports about the annihilation of hundreds of thousands of Jews in Poland and Russia. Just the same, Forverts crowned its editorial that summarized the year just past and looked ahead to the year to come with the hopeful headline, “For a Good Year.” Its choice stemmed neither from public blindness due to distraction nor from disregard due to a quest for oblivion. On the contrary: The editorial spoke about East European cities and towns that had been emptied of their Jews because the Nazis had murdered them, those who remained alive but had become slaves in labor camps, and the tens of thousands who had become starving and persecuted nomads. However, the editorialist stated, although one could state without hesitation that the past year was the worst in the entire history of Jewish suffering, the approximate number of those who had perished, let alone the exact number, remained unknown.

By questioning the reliability of the numbers, Forverts still expressed cautious optimism that had typified the Jewish press since the beginning of the war. Therefore, it allowed itself, in the very midst of the Jewish human apocalypse, to disseminate the consolation of deliverance and national rebirth as well. It did so, it said, on the basis of historical experience: After all, the Jewish people had proved its ability to rise up and dust itself off after every blow that it had been dealt in more than 1,800 years of exile, while its oppressors had largely vanished from the stage of history.