[citation needed] The modern origins of the family can be traced back to R. Meshulam Jekuthiel HaKohen Rappa (d. 1450) who settled in Porto, Mantua, Italy after the Jews were expelled from his hometown of Mainz, Holy Roman Empire.

By the late 17th-century members of the Rappaport family lived in Dubno and Krzemeniec, where they occupied the town's rabbinate.

R. Solomon's grandson Arnold Rapoport [cs] was a leader of the assimilationists in Galicia and was a deputy of the Austrian Reichsrat from 1879 to 1907 representing the Polish party.

About 1750 there were two members of the Rappaport family living in Dyhernfurth (Silesia): one named R. Israel Moses and the other R. Meïr; the former came from Pińczów, the latter from Krotoschin who received a Coat of Arms.

That being said, the family still continued to produce rabbis such as R. David Rappoport and more currently R. Chaim Rapoport and R. Gamliel Rabinowitz-Rappaport.