The Jerusalem Great Synagogue was established according to the vision of the late Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook and The Rishon Lezion, Ben Zion Meir Chai Uziel ztl who thought that Jerusalem deserved a large and impressive synagogue to serve as a symbol and inspiration for Jews in Jerusalem, Israel and the Diaspora so that Jewish people should be proud of their Judaism.. The synagogue building is dedicated to the memory of our Holocaust martyrs and to the memory of everyone who dedicated their lives to the people of Israel and the State of Israel.
The synagogue opened its doors to the public on Tu B'Av 5742 and engraved on its banner a number of essential goals, including being a source for the preservation and development of liturgical music - as existed before World War II; a place for prayer and Talmud Torah. We are a unique synagogue in Jerusalem, in Eretz Israel and the Diaspora with a choir, cantor, musical arranger and conductor who accompany our services on the majority of Shabbatot and holiday services. We have seating for over 1400 people and enjoy new cantorial works composed specially for the synagogue as well as for the while Jewish world and other important concert halls worldwide. We also aim to preserve and rework classical cantorial works. The choir of the Great Synagogue appears all over the world, and can be heard in collaboration with the three cantors who lead the prayer in the Great Synagogue. The synagogue contains three halls for prayer and Talmud Torah, the main Ashkenazi-style minyan, contains over 1400 seats and has an architectural structure that allows every man and woman from anywhere in the synagogue space to see, hear and be a part of our prayers. The Sephardic synagogue contains about 120 seats - and was recently renovated courtesy of the Edmund Safra Foundation. The Beit Midrash contains about 150 seats that operate daily both as a place of prayer and as a place for Torah lessons