BDE: Mrs. Mina Safier, a”h, Owner of Shopper’s Paradise

YS Gold 

We are saddened to inform you of the petirah of Mrs. Safer, longtime proprietor of Shoppers Paradise on 13th Avenue. She was 95 years of age. 

The nifteres was born in the town of Belz. Her father, Reb Meir Stein, as well as her entire extended family, were ardent Belzer chassidim. The war came and upended their idyllic life in Belz. Mina spent the war years in Romania, and married her husband, Reb Luzer Safier of Lizensk. The Safier’s were a household name in the legendary town. They operated a hachnosas orchim, and all the Admorim came to stay with them. 

They would say that throughout the year, there may have been some friction between some chassidim and the others. But when the yohrtzeit of the Rebbe Elimelech came around, they would all converge upon the Safier home, and everyone got along. 

The young couple went to Eretz Yisroel following their marriage, and they remained there for ten years. In 1959, they came to America, and began selling dry goods out of a pushcart in Crown Heights. They toiled mightily to put bread on the table, and eventually built up the business to a store front on 13th Avenue in Boro Park. 

Reb Luzer was niftar more than 45 years ago, and left Mrs. Safier an almanah for close to half a century. But her emunah peshutah kept her going. “She never complained,” recalls a grandchild. She would sit with her Tehillim always davening for someone else, and always giving to people. Her only desire was to take care of others.” She relates that on the last Friday of her life, she prepared food for a number of her married great-grandchildren, leaving instructions for what goes to whom. 

Grand-nephews recall always going into Shoppers Paradise and walking out with a gift from Tante Mina, and she was a well-known personality in the Boro Park community. 

The family merited a great relationship with the courts of Skver and Rachmastrivka on account of the Safier’s hospitality in Lizensk, and they constantly had an open door by the Admorim of Skver and Rachmastrivka, and the relationship was extremely close.  

The Levaya took place Sunday evening at the Rachmastrivka Beis Medrash, and kevurah was in New Square. 

Yehi zichra baruch.