Designed by Carl Ferdinand Langhans in the Neoclassical style and completed in 1829, the synagogue is located in the city's center, which was the northern edge of the former Jewish district.

[5] The synagogue, which opened in 1829 when the city was known as Breslau and part of the Kingdom of Prussia, is a three-story Neoclassical designed by the architect Carl Ferdinand Langhans (1781–1869).

The wooden frame of the Torah ark and the damaged tablets of the Ten Commandments are all that remain of the original religious features.

The White Stork synagogue, which at the time served Conservative Jews escaped that fate, because it was located close to other buildings and the participants in the pogrom were concerned that any fire would spread to non-Jewish structures.

The city's Jewish inhabitants were rounded up and sent to death camps, with the synagogue's courtyard serving as a collection point, in the same way as Umschlagplatz in Warsaw.

After the 1968 Polish political crisis, which saw a Communist-sponsored anti-Semitic campaign, most of the city's Jews left Poland and shortly thereafter, religious ceremonies in the synagogue were suspended.

[1] On October 11, 2012, during the local Pride parade, a small window of the synagogue was broken with a stone thrown by an unidentified vandal believed to have belonged to anti-gay sympathizers of the far-right National Revival that were protesting on the sidelines.