Everyone knows the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. But few people realize the fairy tale might be based on actual events that happened more than 700 years ago, in a real town in north-central Germany. That town still thrives today.

Hamelin — actually, the Germans spell it “Hameln,” without the “i” — has a remarkable connection to Butler. The founder and matriarch of Hameln's Jewish community is Rachel Arnovitz Dohme, a native of Butler, a 1970 graduate of Butler Senior High School and a life member of Butler's Congregation B'nai Abraham synagogue.

Dohme moved to Germany in the mid-'80s. One of the things she missed most was Butler's synagogue.

“I wanted that experience for my children,” she said.

But there was no synagogue. For more than 400 years Hameln had supported a small but vibrant Jewish community until Kristallnacht — the Night of Broken Glass — Nov. 9, 1938, when the Nazis destroyed the synagogue. The Jewish population was decimated — 101 of Hameln's Jews were killed in the Holocaust. The remainder left, never to return.

That officially changed in 1997. Dohme founded Jüdische Gemeinde Hameln, the Reform Jewish Community of Hamelin, organizing Russian immigrants who were interested in knowing about their Jewish heritage.

In the 19 years since its founding, the congrega­tion has grown to more than 200 members, almost all of whom are Russian Jewish émigrés. The new synagogue, completed in 2011, sits on the location of the destroyed original. Close work­ing relationships with the local government and cultural and church groups such as the Society for Christian-Jewish Solidarity have contributed to the congregation's success, Dohme said.