The building is a National Historic Site of Canada,[3] and has also been designated as a heritage property under the provincial Local Government Act.

The first Jews to settle on Vancouver Island came mostly from the United States during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush.

It included not only the congregation's constitution, a list of donors to the building fund, some coins, and a copy of the local newspaper, the British Colonist, still publishing today as the Victoria Times Colonist, but the full membership lists of the Germania Sing Verein and French Benevolent Society of Victoria.

[7] The dedication was marked by a procession of benevolent societies of what appears to have been every religion and ethnicity resident in the young city.

In the sanctuary, which fills most of the building, seating originally reserved for men surrounds the bimah, and a Torah ark protrudes on the east wall.