The surname Rapoport (or Rapaporte, Rappaport, Rappoport) belongs to many prominent rabbis, preaehers, scientists, writers, painters, sculptors, merchants, dealers, statesmen, public men. Here is the list of some of them, fixed in different published sources and in archives.
15th century:
- — «Rabbi d’Oporto»;
- — Haim Rappe;
- — Moses Rap — the Palestinian emissary and a physician.
16th century:
- — Isaak Porto ha-Kogen;
- — Solomon (Shlomo) ben Menachem ha-Kogen Rapa from Venice;
- — Abraham Porto ha-Kogen.
17th century:
- — Abraham Shrentzel ben Ezra Iehiel Rapoport.
18th century — the beginning of the 19th century:
- — Haim ben Simha ha-Kogen Rapoport, who serviced as a rabbi in Lvov and Slutsk. He is the author of sermons (preachings) and funeral speeches on the death of the most outstanding rabbis and the martyrs for the faith;
- — Benjamin ben Simha ha-Kogen Rapoport — the preacher in Brgegeany (Galicia), the author of the short stories to the Torah, to the Hagada stories, he is also the author of the commentary to the «Passover Hagada» (the collection of ritual texts about the Exodus from Egypt);
- — Baruch ben Moses Meir Kagana Rapoport — a rabbi from Lvov.
19th century — the beginning of the 20th century:
- — Baruch Bencion Rapoport, a rabbi of a town of Chepovichy, Kiev province; he compiled the set of books, including the book on the Civil Right;
- — Mordechay Rapoport, the historian of the Talmudic Right, the grandson to both Haim ben Symha ha-Kogen Rapoport and Isaak Aaron Ettinger, a famous public man;
- — Semion Isaakovich Rapoport, a journalist, was born in Galicia, lived in London, who worked in many newspapers published in Russian, he is one of the authors of «Encyclopaedia» Brokhaus and Ephron edition, he is also one of the authors of the «Jewish Encyclopaedia»;
- — Solomon (Shlomo) Yehuda Leih Rapoport, a prominent scientist, one of the creators of the modern Jewish science, he wrote many monographs about famous Jewish scientists of 10th and 11th centuries who had created the epoch in Jewish science. Shlomo was the first to introduce the scientific method into the Jewish literature. He also observed Judaism diachronically (in its historical development);
- — Moritz Rappoport, a cousin to the last (to Solomon Rapoport) an Austrian writer and doctor, who took an active part in the social life of the Jewish community of Lvov. Besides he was the author of epic verses, pamphlets and dramas;
- — Arnold von Porada Rapoport, a grandson of Solomon Rapoport, an Austrian public and political man, the member of Krakov municipality from 1874 to 1881, the member of Supreme Council of Austria-Hungary from 1879 to 1907, he made the great contribution in the charity of Jews; — Philip Rapoport, an american lawyer and journalist, he wrote in English and in German;
- — Haim (Charles) Rapoport
(1865–1941), a political figure, a pamphleter, while in Russia was a member of the group of terrorists of the Narodnaya Volya («The People’s Liberty») party, after the organization being defeated he emigrated to France where he took part in the socialist movement, then he was one of the organizers of the French Communist Party, but left it ostentatiously in 1938 because the leadership of the party refused to blame the terror created by Stalin in the USSR. He is the author of more than 20 books and pamphlets of political and philosophical contents; - — Semion Akimovich Rapoport (’the pen-name S.A.An-sky), the well-known Jewish writer, a poet, a literary critic, an essayist and the connoisseur of Jewish and Ukrainian modes of life and folklore.
20th century:
- — Nathan Rapaport (Rapoport), who was born in Warsaw in 1911 and died in Israel in 1987. He was a sculptor and created monumental works. His most important creations are devoted to the Jewish topics. He has created the memorial monument «The Fire Scroll» on the Xalon mountain (to the west of Jerusalem) in 1972;
- — Iosiph Abramovich Rapoport
(1912–1990), a Soviet scientist in the field of genetics. During the times of the blaming campaign on «the anti-scientific genetics» in USSR, he was only one scientist who refused to capitulate before the powerful T.Lysenko, and therefore I.A.Rapoport was driven away from the Academy of Sciences, but years after he was rehabilitated, as he contributed a lot into our science. He was one of the founders of the theory of chemical mutagenesis; besides, a great number of people witnessed him to have been a very courageous man and while at war as a rifle battalion commander he was awarded the high government awards for the service in the battles. There is the Suvorov Order and the American one «For The Merits» among these awards. In the postwar time he was awarded almost all highest titles the country. He became the correspondent member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1979. Then he became the laureate of Lenin Award in 1984. And in 1990 he got the title of the Hero of the Socialist Labour; - — Yakov Davidovich Rapoport
(1890–1962), the Major-General of the technical engineering service, an outstanding personality, the brilliant leader of the largest building organizations: the Central hydro-building of NKVD, Taghyl building, Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Building. He was awarded five (5!) Lenin orders.
The list above doesn’t pretend to show all the representatives of the surname (family name) Rapoport. 500 years of the history of this kin witnesses on the vital force and the preserving of the most active features of the character, such as: wit, intellect, energy, enterprising, purposefulness, creativity, sociable disposition. Tracing the life and activity of the dozens of the generations of this kin, one may easily prove the powerful indefatigable hereditary genetic code that has created the definite human «phenomenon», fixed in the history under the name of Rapoport. The life and multi-sided activity of the only one family who constitutes 38 direct descendants is enlighted in this book. They all inherit the main features of the «phenomenon» stated above.