History of Back to Basics

In 2011 the Shluchim of Yeshivah College in Melbourne, Australia were looking for an exciting way to engage the students and teach them Sichos. They knew it would be unrealistic to expect the students to learn in a classroom setting after a full day of vigorous schooling, so they thought it would be best to have the boys learn in a chavrusa setting. This proved to be difficult as many of the boys did not have the neccesarry skills to make it through a Sicha on their own. Rather than using English adaptations or essays, the Shluchim thought long and hard, developing a system that would give the students anything they might need in order to make their way through the original Yiddish text. This included a list of translated words, explanation of difficult concepts, background information, and anything else necessary to learn the sicha properly. All of the content was designed in a clean, and user friendly manner to make the booklet that much more appealing.

The program quickly became the most popular hour of the week.

Soon the study hall was filled with students who were eager and excited to learn that week’s Sicha and develop their skills. The clean design, easy writing, and empowering system were exactly what the students needed in order to fully appreciate the Rebbe’s Sichos and identify with their messages.

Before long, various schools in Melbourne, and many of the adults, were taking advantage of these newly developed booklets and gaining insights into the weekly parshah. By the time the year finished, tens of schools and chabad houses around the world were receiving the booklet weekly and enjoying everything it had to offer. After seeing the tremendous response the program had over several years, the Back to Basics team realized there was a major need for something professional to be developed and used in every Chabad school.