As chief rabbi of Romania (1940–1948), he intervened with authorities in the fascist government of Ion Antonescu in an unusually successful attempt to save Jews during the Holocaust.

In 1941, Şafran and Romania's Union of the Jewish Communities, through intervention with Nicodim Munteanu, the patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, convinced Antonescu to revoke an order forcing Jews to wear the yellow badge.

In 1942, Şafran used his contacts with ambassadors (notably the Swiss René de Weck), the queen mother Elena, and church officials, including the papal nuncio Andrea Cassulo,[1] to convince Antonescu to resist German demands for the wholesale deportation of Jews.

As World War II continued, the Jewish Council organized efforts to aid and lobby for the return of Jews deported to Transnistria.

He wrote several books including a memoir, Un Tăciune smuls Flăcărilor: Comunitatea Evreiască din România, 1939-47 [Resisting The Storm in English] published in Romanian in 1995.