The former president of Lebanon's tiny Jewish community, who had pushed for the rehabilitation of Beirut's abandoned synagogue, has died, his family and the community's lawyer told AFP on Wednesday.

Isaac Arazi, 80, who headed the Lebanese Jewish Community Council, "died on Tuesday and was buried the same day," lawyer Bassem el-Hout said.

Arazi's family published an obituary in a Lebanese newspaper describing him as the driving force behind the reconstruction of the Magen Abraham synagogue in central Beirut, one of the largest and most ornate in the Arab world.

The Jewish council that Arazi headed had helped fund the project through donations.

Jews have been living in Lebanon for 2,000 years but their numbers shrank from some 22,000 before the 1975-1990 civil war to around 30 today.

In 2009, Arazi told AFP he was "ecstatic" about renovating the synagogue, which opened to worshippers in 1926, and expressed hope that the endeavor would "ensure that the community grows once again".

Five years later, in 2014, Arazi said efforts were being made to revive the community’s public presence in Lebanon, including renovating and reopening the synagogue.

The synagogue's last rabbi fled the country in 1977.

AFP noted that a handful of buildings that were once synagogues still stand in Lebanon, including one in the northern city of Tripoli and another in the southern city of Sidon.

In 2015, Al Jazeera reported that Sidon's Jewish cemetery was being renovated by an anonymous Jewish benefactor of Lebanese origin who lives in New York.

The rundown cemetery holds roughly 310 tombs scattered over some 20,000 square meters.