Eastern European Branches
The Polish branch of the family explains its name through the following legend: one Easter a certain Jew, to prevent his enemies from smuggling the body of a Christian child into his house, closed all possible entrances and openings except the chimney. Down the chimney however, the dreaded corpse fell, but when a crowd stormed the house nothing but a partridge (Old German, "Rephuhn" or "Raphuhn") was found in the fireplace. But the "Von den Jungen Raben" (the house shield name of Judengasse "From the young crow (cf. raven)") in the signature of Abraham Menahem ha-Kohen Rapa von Port at the end of his Pentateuch commentary, and the additional fact that the coat of arms of the family bears a raven, clearly show that signifies "Rabe" (Middle High German, "Rappe"). The family name, therefore, at the end of the 16th century seems to be clearly established as Ha-Kohen Rabe. Part of the Polish branch changed their name into Wrona, which is Polish for crow. Another possibility is that these Wrona's originated from Verona in Italy. The Yiddish (or Hebrew) transcription of Wrona and Verona are identical (waw resh waw nun he).
By the middle of the 17th century authors belonging to the Rapa-Port family were living in Poland and Lithuania, the name having meanwhile undergone the following modifications: Rapiport, Rapoport, Rapperport, and Rappert. The family spread principally from Cracow and Lemberg (Lviv); in the latter place, in 1584, was born the famous Talmudist Abraham Rapa von Port (called also Schrenzel). In 1650 Rapoports lived in Dubno and Krzemeniec; in the 18th century descendants of R. Judah Rapoport are found in Smyrna and Jerusalem. About 1750 there were two Rapoports in Dyhernfurth (Silesia) — one named Israel Moses and the other R. Meïr: the former came from Pińczów, the latter from Krotoschin. Both found employment in the printing establishment at Dyhernfurth.
A notable scholar of this branch included R. Khaim haKohen Rapoport, who lived in Lviv and died there in 1771. He was one of the key "talmudists" involved in the Frankist debates set up by the Archbishop Dembowski in 1757. R. Khaim's descendants include the Rapoport-Bick dynasty. R. Khaim's pedigree is known from his personal and his descendants' writings. It is reconstructed here:
- R Yakov Moshe Kohen Rapa (15th century)
- R. Abraham Menakhem Kohen Rapa
- R. Gershon Kohen Rapa (born 1538), Porto, Italy
- R. Simcha Katz Rapa
- R. Moses Jeremiah Katz Rapoport, rabbi in Vienna
- R. Meir haKohen Rapoport (d. 1600), rabbi in Belz
- R. Nakhman Rapoport (d. 1674), rabbi in Kamenets-Podolsky, Poznań, Dubno
- R. Simkha haKohen Rapoport (d. 1717)
- R. Khaim haKohen Rapoport (died 1771), head of the Jewish Court in Lviv
- R. Arieh Lieb Rapoport (d. 1759), rabbi in Prezwork
- R. Dov Berish Rapoport (d. 1823), rabbi in Medzhybizh, married into the Emden family
- Rapoport-Bick (rabbinic dynasty)
Read more about this topic: Rappaport
Famous quotes containing the words eastern, european and/or branches:
“See how from far upon the eastern road
The star-led Wizards haste with odours sweet . . .”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“Being human signifies, for each one of us, belonging to a class, a society, a country, a continent and a civilization; and for us European earth-dwellers, the adventure played out in the heart of the New World signifies in the first place that it was not our world and that we bear responsibility for the crime of its destruction.”
—Claude Lévi-Strauss (b. 1908)
“I know of no pursuit in which more real and important services can be rendered to any country than by improving its agriculture, its breed of useful animals, and other branches of a husbandman’s cares.”
—George Washington (1732–1799)