Poklonnaya Gora is the point at which German forces were halted on their march to Moscow in 1941-42 by the Red Army. Oversized tank barriers and a monument had marked the location for some years, but as the fiftieth anniversary of the Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War approached 2, a large memorial complex was created to commemorate the war dead. A museum is at the center of the site, flanked by a Russian Orthodox church, a mosque, and a synagogue.

The synagogue was the last of the four major buildings to be constructed, its late debut due to the emergence of a funding source only when the Russian Jewish Congress was established in 1996.

A modern structure developed by Moshe Zarhi, a noted Israeli architect, with interior and exterior design work by Frank Meissler, the synagogue includes a sanctuary, display cases on upper floors surrounding the synagogue in which various archival materials and artifacts of Russian Jewish history are displayed, and a museum on the lower floor. A large menorah stands outside the building.

-  Betsy Gidwitz, A Survey of Jewish Lifew in Moscow, October 20-29, 1998 (Jan. 2011)