The synagogue was built outside of the Baroque town wall those very last remains were broken in the 1900s, previously the Celtic-Roman Turicum, at the area being then called Aussersihl, meaning that it was outside of the medieval city at the former Sihl river delta.

The former building Zur Judenschule ("Jewish school") was named so to the 18th century because it housed the European High Middle Ages synagogue of Zürich.

Obscured by later layers of plaster, a small remnant of the adornment was found on occasion of the surveys, including fragments of a wall painting from the 14th century.

[4] Jewish residents having "Husroeichi" (an old Swiss-German term meaning a house with a separate chimney) were allowed on 25 February 1352 to live in Zürich, and they were secured by the town law, but there were some restrictions and additions, namely related to testimony, and loans and pawnbroking.

The east facade was rebuilt, the ground was laid at a deeper level, and doors and windows got their present shape in the 20th century.

Only a small remnant of the late medieval room ornaments are preserved, namely the wall painting fragments from the 14th century in the form of leaf tendrils in red and black color.

The medieval building Froschaugasse 4 probably housed the synagogue in the 13th century, and as documented before the persecution of the Jewish community in the years of the plague around 1349 AD.

Thereafter, the property probably was used from 1455 as an accommodation building, and the Jewish citizens were forbidden to live in the city and in the canton Zürich to 1850, even in the whole area of the today's Switzerland; excluded the two communities in Endingen and Lengnau in the Surb Valley.

Unpleasantly the fact that was often agitated here by a certain party against the commercial treaty with France, because in the same by the French [government] refusal's to otherwise not to sign the contract [comment: related to a trade relationship with the Swiss Federal authorities], when the emancipation of the Jews in Switzerland not was pronounced, the more the generous method of the Zürich city council is to recognize."

[8] A first prayer hall was established in autumn 1864 at an "excellent and beautiful place" in the medieval Jewish residential area Brunngasse at Neumarkt, Zürich; 320 Swiss francs (CHF) had to be paid annually to rent the room.

[7] In his sermon Rabbi Dr. Hermann Engelbert mentioned at the end of his speech that "it would one day come a time when all people united by faith and love for a covenant of humanity itself, where the kingdom of truth, of light and peace will be carried out.

In the evening a banquet was held of approximately 270 people invited to the event, followed by a ball, under participation of officials of the government and Christian clergy of Zürich.

The Moorish style imaginative inner decorations were not appreciated by all members of the 1880s community, but "thanks to the subdued lighting, the wealth colored jewelry was less exciting and distracting as expected.

Once a month, in the worship on the Sabbath morning and on occasion of the High Holi Days celebrations, as well as on interfaith events and concerts in Switzerland and abroad, the choir is active for over 100 years.

The repertoire of the choir comprises about 60 mostly synagogue songs and accompaniments of Chasan-German, French, Polish and Russian composers of the 19th century and contemporary Swiss, American and Israeli musicians.