After the opening of the railway line BEIRUT- DAMASCUS in August 1895, the Jews from Beirut began spending their summer holidays in the Lebanese mountains in Aley. They settled there next to their brothers of religion, refugees from Deir El Kamar and Barouk in the region of Chouf because of the events between Christians and Druzes in 1860. The benefactor Ezra, son of Jacob ANZARUT , that is JACOB’s family, built a synagogue for the Jewish community in 1895 which he named (OHEL YA'AKOB), and he used his father's first name. 

Aley was a resort town where wealthy Jews spent the cool summer months. The synagogue was built by Ezra 'Anzarut, and was an important source of revenues for the Bikkour Holim, a society that provided health services for the poor. Until the foundation of the Magen-Abraham Synagogue in 1926, the Aley synagogue was the major philanthropic agent for the Jewish community.