The renowned scholar and chief Rabbi of Geneva explores the mystical, spiritual, and profound ontological themes of the Kabbalah.


Born in 1910, Alexandre Safran is one of the most distinguished rabbinic and scholarly personages of our time. His Jewish studies began with his father, the ga'on R. Bezalel Ze'ev, author of the responsa She'eilot uTeshuvot haReBaZ. At 29 he became chief rabbi of Rumania, and hence, by law, a member of its Senate. As anti-Semitic rulers paved the way for the later nazi persecutions in the Rumanian parliament, he was the sole representative of the almost one million Jews in the land. During World War II, Dr. Safran presided over the Jewish Committee of the underground resistance. With this came his repeated contacts and interventions with State leaders, foreign diplomats, local and foreign high church officials, and above all with the country's king and queen, "... and thus reduced partially the terrible dimensions of the catastrophe, in rescuing the half of the Jewish population which miraculously survived" (Gideon Hausner, President of the Yad Vashem Council). After the war Dr. Safran acted to obtain major international aid for Rumania's Jews; but with the communists in power, he was compelled to leave the country. In 1948 he became chief rabbi of Geneva, Switzerland, and later also professor of philosophy in its university. Returning to his lifelong interest in all areas of Jewish learning, in time Dr. Safran became known as a profound original thinker. At Israel's Bar-Ilan University, a Chair in Research into Kabbalah has been established in his name.