In the 1800s, the number of Jewish people significantly increased in France, including Paris, as a result of the French Revolution.

Gustave de Rothschild sought and was granted permission by Emperor Napoleon III to build a new larger synagogue.

The city of Paris offered a plot of land in the business district, and de Rothschild funded construction of the synagogue.

Despite initial plans that the synagogue face east on Rue de la Saint-Georges, opposite two Roman Catholic churches, Empress Eugénie, the Catholic wife of Napoleon III, opposed plans and the synagogue was faced west, on the narrower Rue de la Victoire.

Every year, the Sunday before Rosh Hashanah, a ceremony in remembrance of the Martyrs of the Deportation takes place, that is televised on France 2.