 Architect Richard Michael won this competition, and also advanced the program for the synagogue.With the outbreak of World War I, Michael was drafted to the German army and forced to leave the country, and therefore did not complete the building plans for the synagogue building.He was replaced by Jewish German architect Alexander Baerwald, who was also the building planner for the Technion building in Haifa (1912), the Hebrew Reali School (1912), and other private and municipal buildings in Tel Aviv.