As early as 1923 the Chief Rabbis of Israel, Abraham Kook and Jacob Meir, mooted plans for a large central synagogue in Jerusalem.

It was over 30 years later in 1958 when Heichal Shlomo, seat of the Israeli Rabbinate, was founded, that a small synagogue was established within the building.

As time passed and the need for more space grew, services were moved and held in the foyer of Heichal Shlomo.

The main sponsor for construction of the new synagogue was Sir Isaac Wolfson, a Jewish philanthropist from Britain.

The Wolfson family consecrated the synagogue in the memory of the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust and to the fallen soldiers of Israel Defense Forces.