The exterior facade of the synagogue was painted turquoise, was returned to its original colour of white, with bright indigo boarders during a restoration process in 2018–2019.

[5][7] They found that living in India, amidst a cosmopolitan community consisting of Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and, much later, Muslims, was a very cordial environment, totally free of anti-Semitic feelings.

[5][6] The Jewish merchant community, which played a significant role in the commercial development of then Bombay (now Mumbai), consisted of Jews from Iraq, Syria, and other Middle Eastern countries who immigrated in the late 18th century under the threat of persecution.

In 1790, one such business magnate was Shalom ben Ovadiah HaCohen, a Baghdadi Jew who had migrated from Aleppo (Halab), in Syria to Bombay; other Jewish businessmen from Baghdad, Basra, and Yemen followed him.

On many such occasions, in view of the large crowd of devotees, overflow prayer services were held in the neighbouring Cawasjee Jehangir Public Hall.

[6] Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, who had conducted Sabbath services on the previous day and also held religious discourses at the Knesset Eliyahoo Synagogue, was killed, along with his wife and a few other Jews at the Nariman House, a community center operated by Chabad.

Whilst there was no specific attack on the Knesset Eliyahoo Synagogue or its congregation, the terrorists' actions sowed fear among the Jewish community members residing in Mumbai, and also forged a closer bond between the city's Baghdadi and Bene Israel Jews.

[6] The synagogue was returned to its original colour of white, with bright indigo boarders during a restoration process in 2018–2019 carried out by conservation architect Abha Narain Lambah.