The status of a city was assigned to Sumy only in 1780, after the liquidation of the regimental structure of Slobozhanshchyna that was in force at that time in the Russian Empire. Sumy was not a shtetl, since the city was located outside the Pale of Settlement, and therefore Jewish life here was not particularly active. According to the laws of the Russian Empire, only Jews of a certain class were allowed to settle in such territories, for example, those with higher education, merchants belonging to the First Guild, artisans who were assigned to craft workshops (tailors, watchmakers, shoemakers).

Nevertheless, in this provincial town of the Kharkov province, over time, a small but quite active and wealthy Jewish community was formed. Local Jewish merchants received the right to attend the fair in 1835, but only in 1858 to sell foreign-made goods there. According to data for 1865, there were only 56 Jews in Sumy, but in 1897 the Jewish community already numbered 760 people, which accounted for approximately 2.8% of the city population. According to the 1910 census, 1012 Jews lived in Sumy. It should be noted that the Jewish community of the city consisted mainly of fairly wealthy people. With the development of capitalism in the Russian Empire, in the early 1900s, doctors, pharmacists, financiers and people from other specialties began to come to Sumy, establishing small commerce or the service sector there.

As of 1910, three synagogues, the Jewish Society for Aid to the Poor, the Bikur Cholim mitzvah, and a Jewish cemetery were built and operating in the city. Before World War I, both pharmacies, a dairy farm and more than forty shops and stores were owned by Jews. Another synagogue was also built.

During the troubled period of the revolution and the subsequent civil war, the city's Jewish community was repeatedly looted, and several of its members were killed.

During the period from 1920 to 1939, the number of Jews in Sumy gradually decreased. So, if in 1920 there were 3,253 Jews in the city, then as of 1939 there were only 1,851.

After Germany attacked the USSR in 1941, some Jews left the city, evacuating to the east of the country, and some of them were mobilized into the Red Army. The city was captured by the advanced units of the Wehrmacht in early October 1941. According to archive data, about 3,000 Jews were killed by the Germans during the occupation of the city.

After the war, the Jewish community in Sumy was partially restored. The real revival of Jewish life and culture in the city began in the 1990s. Today, the local community's activities are centered around the synagogue, which was returned to it in 2005. At its base there is a club for Jewish youth, the Chabad Sumy Foundation, and events related to Jewish holidays and concerts are held.