 In the 1930s when the illustrious Chazon Ish was on his way to the Western Wall, he made a point of stopping by the synagogue to study there, stating “I have great merit to see the place where such great and holy people learnt and prayed”.During the 1947–1949 Palestine war the contents of the building were looted and the building was desecrated.The son of Rabbi Shalom Hedaya (who was head of Bet El from 1927 to 1945, following the leadership of Rabbi Yedidya Rafael Aboulafia and Rabbi Massoud Alhadad), Rabbi Ovadia Hedaya, set to work on schemes to revive the study of Kabbalah in the spirit of Bet El.