Formed in 1841, the congregation was originally located on Bourke Street before moving in 1930 to Toorak Road, South Yarra.

Jewish High Holiday services were first held in 1839,[1] and in 1841 the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation was formed.

[2] The 1850s saw the arrival of some 300 Jewish families from London and the Province of Posen, Prussia to Melbourne, prompting the construction of a new larger synagogue on the Bourke Street site.

[6][7] In 1930 the congregation moved to Toorak Road, South Yarra, to the newly completed classical style 1300-seat synagogue, designed by Nahum Barnet.

[8] The congregation today enjoys a large and diverse membership with its chief minister, Rabbi Shlomo Nathanson.