In 1808, the Apter Rav, Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Heschel moved to Iași to found a Chassidic community there (he was to leave only a few years thereafter).

The Apter Rebbe built the synagogue from his own funds, though the completion of surrounding luxurious homes, which had been part of his contract with the parnassim of Iași, was unable to be realized.

[4] A common personality in the Pod Roșu Synagogue was Dovid Ba'al Shem, a kabbalist who previously studied with the Maiden of Ludmir.

Pod Roșu Synagogue is known as the seat of the rabbinate of Rabbi Avraham Elchanan "Huna" Maizelman (1863?-1928), a Talmid Chacham known as the "Poylesher Rov".

Born in Halych in Galicia, he commenced the study of Halakhah at an early age and received Semicha when he was forty years old from rabbis of Stryi.

His surviving responsa are recorded in Rabbi Binyomin Aryeh ha-kohen Weiss of Chernowitz's Even yekara (tinyana) 126 and (telita'ah) 165.