The present building was consecrated in 2000, after the congregation vacated their long-time home, the Great Synagogue on Wolmarans Street, Hillbrow in 1994, after eighty years.

"[1] All large-scale Jewish events in Johannesburg were held in the building, and throughout its existence it was the seat of the country's chief rabbi.

[3] Their style of worship, fostered in Lithuania had been uninhibited and brief in comparison to the longer, formal services at the President Street synagogue.

[3] In December 1891, 150 of the founding and most wealthy members (including Sammy Marks) seceded from Prince Street to form Johannesburg Hebrew Congregation (JHC), under the leadership of Emanuel Mendelssohn.

[3] South African president Paul Kruger granted four plots of land on the corner of Joubert and De Villiers Streets for the JHC to build its own synagogue.

[3] The building was designed by Swiss architect Theophile Schaerer, and the contractors were Hoheison & Co. Sammy Marks provided the bricks, and handed over the key to the rabbi Landau at the inaugural ceremony.

The site, chosen by the Jewish architect Hermann Kallenbach, was near the area where most of Johannesburg's Jews lived at the time.

[6] He said that South Africa's synagogues were "open to everyone of any creed or color" and that non-white visitors and congregants "would be admitted to services in exactly the same way as Europeans.

[3] In February 1993, Harris led prayers for a special 24 hour fast after a number of recent tragedies claimed the lives of local Jews.

[9] Debate about relocating the synagogue began in the 1980s as urban decay became an issue in Hillbrow and as Jewish families deserted the inner city for the northern suburbs.

[3] The original synagogue building was sold for R850, 000 in 1998 and it was subsequently owned by the Israeli diamond dealer, Michel Rubinek who rented it to the Word of Life Assembly church.

"[14] The current Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein was inducted at the Sandton Shul rather than Great Park as the former has greater seat capacity.