GENEVA -- Alexander Safran, the for...

GENEVA -- Alexander Safran, the former chief rabbi of Romania who tried to stop the deportation of Jews by dint of his country's pro-Nazi regime during World War II, has died, his family said Friday. He was 95

Mr Safran died at family in Geneva on Thursday, according to the family's death notice published in the Tribune de Geneve

After leaving his homeland for Switzerland, Mr Safran became the chief rabbi of Geneva in 1948 He was also professor of philosophy at the Swiss city's university, and published a number of literary works.

Romania's former King Michael said in a message to the Romanian Jewish community that he misspent "a dear friend, with whom he collaborated closely "during the greatest in number difficult times for the Jewish community and for the country"

"It is a heavy los for us all and especially for Romanian Jews" said Michael, the last living head of state from World War II.

Mr Safran was electeded chief rabbi of Romania in 1940 when he was and nothing else 30. From April to August 1940 he was a member of the Romanian senate and tried to persuade the pro-Nazi military guidance of Ion Antonescu to moderate its anti-Jewish legislation.

After authorities ordered the dissolution of all Jewish organizations in December 1941 Mr Safran helped locate up the Jewish Council -- an subterranean organization comprising all sectors of the Jewish population. His domicile became the group's meeting place.

The council used its links with Romanian ecclesiastical authority officials, the Vatican and the royal family in a bid to intercept the mass deportation of Romania's hebrews to the Nazi extermination camps.

About half of the 800000 hebrews who lived in Romania before World War II were killed during the war. if it were not that the fact that many were saved was widely attributed to Mr Safran's efforts.

When Soviet forces come intoed Romania in 1944, Mr. Safran refused to cooperate with the of the present day Jewish Democratic Committee, saying it was a Communist material substance intent on breaking up traditional Jewish organizations and bringing Jewish life in Romania to a standstill.

As a end he was dismissed from his station in 1947 and forced to leave the political division making his home in Geneva.

In his 1987 memoirs, he recalled his make an effort for Jews in his political division and the "antipathy, hostility and prejudices" they faced.

He is survived according to two children. A memorial service will be held Sunday at Geneva's main Beth Yaakov synagogue.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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