There have been Jews in Ireland for centuries. The earliest known reference dates back to 1079 and a small community had been established by at least 1232 when the English King Henry III sent them a sum of money. The Jewish community in Northern Ireland began to fully form in the mid 19th century through German linen merchants who had made the province their home.

D.J. Jaffe who settled in Belfast in 1851, established a congregation in 1869 and built its first synagogue, in Great Victoria Street, in 1871/72. Jews began arriving in Belfast in the 1860s and 1870s drawn to Belfast and Ulster at large by the linen and wool trade. Mostly arriving from Germany, the Jewish families were perhaps already involved in the business of exporting textiles across Europe.

After 1881 the community increased with the arrival of Jewish refugees from Russia. These at first formed their own congregation but in 1903 joined the main congregation. A municipal Jewish elementary school was established in 1898. In in 1901, the number of Jews in Ireland was estimated to be 3,771, by 1904 already 4,800.

Eastern European Jews fleeing religious persecution is Lithuania and Poland also found a home in Belfast. Belfast was also one of the cities which welcomed children escaping Nazis slaughter on the eve of WWII through operation kindertransport.

After the Second World War, the Jewish population of Ireland peaked at around 5,500, then went into a decline again (many emigrated to the UK or Israel). In 1967 the Jewish population numbered about 1,350. In that year, a new synagogue building was consecrated.

The Belfast congregation today numbers about 80 people, mostly elderly.