[7] By the 1990s, the remaining congregation was aged, and had difficulty paying for synagogue repairs and finding enough men for a prayer quorum.

[4] At the time, most synagogues used the word "Anshei" (Hebrew for "people of") in their names to designate the city or region in Europe from which their members originated.

The Articles of Incorporation stated that the congregation's intent was "[t]o have a synagogue for the purposes of praying, to bury their dead, and to advance its members spiritually and intellectually.

"[2] When the synagogue was founded, approximately 20,000 of New York City's 1.5 million Jews lived in Queens, and Corona had two Jewish neighborhoods.

[10] It was modeled after the synagogues built on Manhattan's Lower East Side, which had to be squeezed into narrow tenement lots.

Five Bukharan Jewish families moved to LeFrak City in 1991; this number had grown to over 500 by 1995, and nearby apartment buildings held hundreds more.

[7] Bukharan Jews began worshiping at Tifereth Israel in the mid-1990s,[1][2] holding their own services in the synagogue basement.

[8] Despite the fact that Tifereth Israel was an Ashkenazi synagogue, and the Bukharan Jews followed Sephardic law and customs, the groups initially co-existed peacefully.

They believed that the Bukharans were hoping to start praying in the main sanctuary, relegating Tifereth Israel's members to the basement.

[1][4] One of two synagogues left in Corona,[4] its interior was "substantially intact", and a number of its "distinctive architectural features" remained, "including its original windows, decorative wood ornament, and Moorish pressed metal details".

[14] By this time, however, the building had further deteriorated; it had termites, it leaked, the paint was peeling, and in January 2008 the basement ceiling collapsed.

[11] It described the building as a "rare survival" of New York's wooden, vernacular synagogue architecture,[11] A $275,000 gift from philanthropist Arnold Goldstein enabled the commencement of $1.5 million in restoration work.

[5][11] The Conservancy stated the restoration would "remove the present stucco coating and restore the original wood clapboard siding, wood windows and doors, Moorish-style metal domes and finials, and historic paint colors to this important building, returning it to its appearance of a century ago".

[6][9] In 2020, the New York Landmarks Conservancy awarded the synagogue a $10,000 Sacred Site Grant for weather proofing the facility.