For years the landmark synagogue, which has ably served the city's Baghdadi-Jewish community for about a century-and-a-half, has been known locally as Laal Deul (Red Temple).

Jewish people mostly from Iraq, but also from Iran and various other countries under the control of the Ottoman Empire, left their homelands in search of religious tolerance, economic opportunity, and quality of life.

Pune came to offer the Baghdadis affiliated with this synagogue the chance to become fully practicing Jews and productive citizens of the broader local community.

A building distinctly of the English Gothic-revival style,[5] Ohel David was designed by the British colonial architect Henry Stain Clair Wilkins.

Working with Wilkins, the Ohel David congregation, like other Baghdadi communities, chose an architectural style developed in England or other parts of Europe and revived in the nineteenth century as a precedent for their houses of prayer.

Ohel David follows the pattern of other Baghdadi synagogues in India and Myanmar with a particularly impressive architectural feature: a sizeable heckal (ark) that is raised a few feet above the level of the sanctuary floor.

The heckal, positioned on the wall nearest to Jerusalem as per synagogue convention, is set within a double-height niche that is elaborately embellished with plaster decoration.

As a consequence of social and political change during the second half of the twentieth century, Ohel David's congregation today is considerably smaller and less active than it once was.

Tourists and other visitors can also arrange to be invited, and for these reasons, the synagogue is more than ever an integral part of Pune's Jewish identity as well as a testament to the city's tradition of religious and social diversity and tolerance.