I had seen the available research into the origin of the Rappaport family, and it always seems to begin in about 1450, when a progenitor of the family moved from Mainz to Venice. It has always surprised me that no one has taken it any further back. After all, if this family is the exemplar of kohanim meyuchasim, surely SOMEONE should have been able to show why that is more than a mere rumor!
What I did was connect some dots using otherwise known information, and that led to the inexorable conclusion that the Rapa family was in fact the hakohen family from (previously) Mainz, and that our ancestry can, in fact, be traced much further back..
These are the few pieces of information that I had, and that I used:
First, the record of Rabbonim in Mainz shows that Rav Moshe 'Minz' left Mainz in 1455, followed by his (younger) brother Yehuda who left shortlt thereafter for Padua (which, incidentally, is only about 28 miles from Venice), whee he died in 1508. While the Mainz records do not show the destination of R' Moshe, interestingly enough Rav Moshe Rapa ('Rapa' comes from the Hebrew word for doctor, 'rofeh') shows up in Venice at just about that exact same time.
To further show that R' Moshe Rapa is the same individual as R' Moshe 'Minz' ('Minz' being his hometown and not an actual name), it is noteworthy that there are no subsequent rabbonim in Mainz from the Hakohen family (other than his brother, who followed him to Italy), though there had been for almost half a millenium until that point.
Next, R' Moshe was known to have worked with Johannes Gutenberg on his printing press in the mid-15th century. Gutenberg was also known to have sworn all his associates to secrecy, to prevent his printing process from becoming known to outsiders. Surprise, surprise: a very few short years after Gutenberg's death in 1468, Yekusiel Rapa, son of R' Moshe Rapa, publishes the first Hebrew sefer ever printed, using the 'secret' technology developed by Gutenberg! The source of the information is obvious once the dots are connected: R' Moshe brought the knowledge from Mainz, and worked with his son to reproduce the equipment and begin printing sefarim.
Further, it is worth remembering that Jewish society was historically very different than it is today. For ages, it was the norm that the son of a weaver became a weaver; the son of a blacksmith became a blacksmith; the son of a butcher became a butcher; and the son of a Rav became a Rav. What are the odds of there being a SECOND family of rabbonim, who were kohanim, in Mainz back in the 11th through 15th centuries? Let's see: the Jewish population in Mainz in about 1285 consisted of a grand total of 54 families. That's right; 54. Not 500. Not 2000. Just 54. And historically, it never exceeded about 100 families at any point pre-1600. Now, how many of those were likely kohanim? It is generally accepted that about 5% of Jews are kohanim. That means, there were most likely only about 2 to 5 families of kohanim in Mainz in that era. Now, how many of those 2 to 5 were likely to be Rabbanim? Especially when we consider that (with I think 1 exception) all the Mainz Rabbonim who were kohanim were from the same family, what are the odds of there being more than one? And when you consider that once R' Moshe's brother, Yehuda, left Mainz in 1508 there were precsiely zero Rabbonim in Mainz who were kohanim (at least for the next several centuries), I daresay the odds are not very high.
Finally, the Rappaport family has a mesora of being descended from R' Elazar ben Azarya, and from him to Ezra. The Mainz hakohen family has the same mesora (I will be adding more on that to geni later this week). What are the odds of 2 unrelated families having the same mesora, as compared to the odds of those 2 being the same family, considering that there is no other family (of which I am aware) claiming that mesora?
So, combine all the above.
There was almost certainly only 1 family of rabbonim in Mainz who were Kohanim. That family had a mesora of being descended from R' Elazar ben Azarya. The last of that rabbinic dynasty in Mainz were R' Moshe, who left Mainz in 1455, and his brother who left a few years later and moved to Padua, which is very close to Venice. R' Moshe was a Rav and also a doctor (the 2 often went together in the middle and late Middle Ages), and he had worked with Johannes Gutenberg. About the same year that R' Moshe left Mainz, R' Moshe 'Rapa' - 'Rofeh' - appeared in Venice, the scion of a distinguished family of kohanim descended from r' Elazar ben Azarya. Just over 15 years later, his son starts publishing sefarim using the 'secret' Gutenberg technology.
While accountants can often be creative with math, 1 + 1 + 1 is almost always 3. That's what we have here.
So, can I be 100% sure that we are dealing with the same R' Moshe from Mainz? No. I have no independent verification. But can I be 99plus% sure? Yes, I think so. And I think Mr William of Occam would concur.
The Raven showing on the 'shield' of the Rapa family is likely there because Rapa in old German meant Raven; that was more a pun than a reason for the name (though the legend of the dead raven still sounds great). Such puns were commonplace at the time: for example, an old haggada from the 16th century (this is true!) shows a sketch of a rabbit chase right before kiddush - because the German phrase for 'rabbit chase' is 'Jagn-de-haas', which sounds very much like 'yakNeHaz' which is the order of kiddush when Pesach night is a motzei shabbos! The Adler family showed an eagle on its shield, because in German an eagle was an adler... and so on. It would have been perfectly acceptable to have a raven on a 'Rapa' shield at that time.
I would like to add just one bit, about the origin of the name 'Rappaport': R' Moshe haRofeh bore the name 'Rapa' when he settled in Venice, and his descendants kept that name. When his grandson Yechiel moved to Porto Mantovano, they adopted the name 'Rapa m'Port', presumable to distinguish them from some cousins who lived elsewhere (for example, a cousin living in Padua would at the time have been known as 'Rapa m'Padua'). Over the generations, the identifier 'mi-' ('from') was dropped, and the name became Rapa-port, or Rappaport.
I have not uploaded this info to geni, nor will I be doing so. You certainly may if you wish; I have no desire to keep any of this secret. I have though uploaded more generations, going back even further in time. I have what I believe to be an accurate chart going all the way back to said R' Elazar ben Azarya, and on to Ezra and our mutual great... grandfather Aharon haKohen.
My sources include the Jewish Encyclopedia; the Center for the study of the Rappaport family; the introduction by yehuda leontin (a different one!) to the sefer yosipon (Josephus) printed in Venice by yechiel ben yejusiel rappaport; sefarim on the tanaim, amoraim, and gaonim; miscellaneous other sefarim, and random online research.
I have long learned to take what 'is written' with a box of salt (a grain is nowhere near enough): a path on geni tracks r' yehuda leontin to the king of the khazars, who, as a convert, could not possibly have been a kohen; but they then explain that, as a king, he 'adopted' the cognomen 'kohen'. Clear and utter claptrap. This explanation is predicated on the fact that 'the only other possible identity of yehudah leontin is that of the brother of aharon ben meir, and he claimed descent from King Dovid so he could not have been a kohen!' Note that they have less of a problem with the 'adoption' of the 'kohen' title by a convert, than they do with a claim of descent from King Dovid! (Aharon ben meir and his brother yehudah Leontin actually WERE descended from King Dovid - through their great... grandmother, the daughter of Bustenai! - though they were of course also kohanim.)
My younger sister claims to have seen a copy of our geneology chart, all the way back to Ezra, when she visited our cousin Libby in Israel in about 1980 (Libby was the wife of Meir Kahane). While it cannot now be located, I have sent a copy of the chart I put together to Meir's brother, our cousin nachman Kahana, for his review and comment. I am hopeful that he might remember seeing the old chart in his parents' (or brother's) home many years ago, and might shed light on the accuracy of what I compiled. While he has not yet given me specific comments, he did say that he considered it to be 'of great historical significance' and that he would look at it more closely when he has the time.
I will say this: there are certainly some generations on my chart, mostly dating back to the days of the amoraim, where I had to make certain assumptions and (educated) guesses. There are some generations where I have a 100% certainty (since the mid-18th century), others where I have 99%+ certainty, and yet others where my certainty level is uncertain (maybe 75% or so), because I have neither written proof nor compelling logical reasons for the connection. Nothing though is fabricated. All are real people whose names are mentioned in sefarim, and whose connection to their respective fathers are mentioned in sefarim. All I really did was assemble a jigsaw puzzle of generations. And my level of certainty connecting the Rappaports of Venice to the hakohens of mainz is in the 99%+ category. Not 100%, because coincidences do happen. But, as I spelled out above, absent compelling evidence to the contrary, 1+1+1=3. I would be beyond astonished if it can be proven that Moshe hakohen Rapa who died in Venice in 1489 was NOT the same Moshe hakohen who left Mainz in 1455 to move to Venice. And THAT moshe hakohen was an 18th generation direct patrilineal descendant from Yehudah ben Meir hakohen Leontin, whose grandson yehuda ben meir hakohen authored sefer hadinim.
I welcome your comments and any thoughts.
B'hatlzlacha,
Shragi Kahana
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