The synagogue was built between 1863 and 1864, with completion works extended until 1865. The construction project was entrusted to the Viennese architect . First Rabbi Mór Hirschfeld had taken the initiative to appeal to members of the community, who donated the necessary funds to purchase two plots near the
Judenhof ("Jewish Quarter") from the Janicsáry family and the
Piarist college. Ignátz S. Eisenstädter, the cashier and later, between 1870 and 1890, the president of the community, played a key role in the organizing committee under the leadership of Marcus Grünbaum. The building was originally called the New Synagogue. The synagogue was inaugurated on 19 September 1865, at 10 o'clock, one day before the eve of
Rosh HaShanah, being re-inaugurated two years later, in 1867, in the presence of Emperor
Franz Joseph I of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 2001, the Jewish community of Timișoara ceded the building to the
Philharmonic Society for a period of 50 years, to be used as a
concert hall. It was reopened for the first time in 20 years in September 2005, when it hosted a concert organized by the Banatul Philharmonic. == Architecture ==