The study of the Great Israelite Temple of Rio de Janeiro brought, from the analysis of the architectural design, the analysis of the great synagogues of the nineteenth century in Europe, which become symbols of the Jewish Emancipation as representing instruments of cultural symbioses that occurred in the West between Judaism and dominant cultures. Before the debates about art and Jewish architecture that extended the trail of the nationalist movements of the nineteenth century, the synagogue buildings pointed to the pursuit of architectural elements that could justify the possible eastern and Semitic origin. So influencing the Great Temple of the project that was prepared only at the end of the 1920s.The organizational form of the immigrant community and the hiring of Italian eclectic architect were determinant in the design with great complexity and uniqueness in a modern structure with ornamental elements of European synagogues that alluded to possible Moorish and oriental Jewish origin.