It is with great excitement and deep pride that we welcome the Jerusalem Ballet Company to Florida Atlantic University and to the United States for their inaugural residency in Boca Raton. This two-week artistic exchange marks the beginning of a remarkable partnership that bridges cultures and communities through the unifying power of dance.

The company’s performances of Houdini – The Other Side and Memento invite us into narratives of profound human courage and creativity. Through the life of Harry Houdini, we experience the relentless pursuit of freedom and expression; through the story of Memento’s Franceska Mann, we honor the strength and spirit that defy oppression. These works remind us that dance transcends words, and it moves us to imagine, to remember, and to connect.

As we celebrate this historic residency, we also look ahead to our future summer study abroad program at the Jerusalem Ballet’s Summer Workshop, where FAU students will have the extraordinary opportunity to train and collaborate internationally. This partnership represents the beginning of a vibrant exchange that will continue to shape our dancers, our university, and our global engagement in the arts.

I extend my sincere gratitude to President Adam Hasner, Dean Michael Horswell, Florida-Israel Institute, my colleagues in the College of Arts and Letters and across campus, and to our generous donors and patrons whose support makes this vision possible.

Welcome, Jerusalem Ballet, to the Florida Atlantic community. May this be the first of many inspired collaborations that celebrate the enduring power of dance.

With appreciation and joy,

Memento, choreographed by Nadia Timofeyeva, is dedicated to the memory of the Jewish ballerina Franciszka Mann, who performed her last dance in the gas chamber. According to eyewitness accounts, Franciszka, performing captivating and seductive dance movements, snatched the pistol from the holster of the guard who was charmed by her grace, and fired three shots, wounding two and killing one officer. According to one version, the unyielding young woman then took her own life with the stolen pistol, while according to another, she was killed along with others by soldiers who rushed in following the commotion. In any case, on that day, October 23, 1943, Franciszka Mann met her death in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Her brave acts, which undoubtedly carried with them a charm of audacity, remain to this day one of the most recognizable actions of Jewish resistance.

Franciszka Mann, née Rosenberg, was born in 1917 in Warsaw. From childhood, she engaged in ballet, studied with the best teachers, and was considered one of the most beautiful and promising young ballerinas of her time. At the beginning of World War II, she was taken captive to the Warsaw Ghetto, but continued to dance at the "Melody Palace" club, where senior German officials spent time. After the Ghetto uprising in 1943, she was sent, along with 3,000 other Jews, on a seemingly comfortable train to the Burgau camp in southern Germany, with the aim of transferring them to Switzerland and later to Latin America, far from the war. The journey was prolonged until the train stopped at the Auschwitz camp. There, they were received by a "Third Reich Foreign Office official," Franz Hössler, who was actually the head of the camp guard at Auschwitz-Birkenau, and offered them a "shower for disinfection." And from here, what happened, happened - because the rebellious Mann could not allow herself to die in silence.

This story is supported by a report from the Auschwitz commandant and the experiences of one of the Sonderkommando members, in the memoirs of former camp prisoners Filip Müller and Jerzy Tabaau, as well as in the testimony of Adolf Eichmann that Josef Schillinger, known for his sadism, "was actually killed by a Jewish woman."