Butler Senior High School’s class of 2026 announced Rachel Arnovitz Dohme, of the Butler High School Class of 1970, as its choice for the 46th annual Butler Senior High School Distinguished Graduate Award.

Dohme was born on March 20, 1952, in Butler, the third of four children. She attended West End and Bon Aire elementary schools and graduated from Butler Area Senior High School in 1970. She earned bachelor’s degrees in special education (K–12) and elementary education (K–6) from Slippery Rock State College. Dohme went on to teach special education in public schools in Maryland, Pennsylvania and California.

In 1982, she moved to Hameln, Germany, where she became involved in community and interfaith work. She co-founded the Reform Jewish Congregation of Hameln in 1997 and has served as a congregational leader since its founding. In the 1990s, she played a key role in assisting Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union, helping them with housing, language and religious education. Dohme was instrumental in restoring Jewish life in Hameln. She helped reopen and restore a Jewish cemetery desecrated during World War II, established a new cemetery in 2001 and led efforts to reclaim and rebuild the historic synagogue site destroyed in 1938. She later founded and served as president of the Liberal Synagogue Hameln Foundation, supporting the reconstruction of a synagogue and the development of Jewish community life, said a news release from Butler Area School District.

Dohme’s contributions have been widely recognized. She received the German Medal of Honor in 2013 and the Interfaith “Blickwechsel Prize” in 2015 for her work fostering Christian-Jewish understanding. She also received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for her impact on restoring Jewish life in Hameln.

Throughout her life, Dohme has remained committed to education, interfaith dialogue and community building, leaving a lasting legacy both in the U.S. and Germany, Butler school district said.