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FESTSCHRIFT | 81

I first met Rabbi Rapp when we were in high school together, but be-

gan to really know him in 10 grade math, when I sat in front of him in Geometry class.
th
I spent the year laughing through class listening to his various jokes and comments, but
also being amazed that he still seemed to know everything! While he had everyone laugh-
ing throughout high school, he was also obviously quite brilliant.

It was in college though, that we became close friends. We wound up as roommates, which
worked out incredibly well. Living day in and day out with a person gives you a great idea
as to what they are really made of, and Rabbi Rapp was and still is truly a special person.
We had lots of fun (and food!), but we also used our room for a greater purpose. Rabbi
Rapp helped found the YU Philanthropy Society, where we would collect empty soda cans

throughout the YU campus and then hand them in for the five cent deposit. These mere
nickels funded a meal delivery plan for poor and home bound elderly in the Washington
Heights neighborhood. However, there was no place to store these cans until we were able
to redeem them. Therefore, our room had thousands of cans all over – floors, closets, un-
der beds – just waiting until the Coke truck would come and pick up the cans.

You can’t mention Rabbi Rapp without mentioning his parents, Jack A”H and Celia
Rapp, who set the model for chessed. I can illustrate this in the following conversation
that took place one year after Pesach vacation:

ES: How was your Yom Tov?
RR: Great – I got a new brother.

ES: Mazel tov! Wait, I saw your mother on Purim. She didn’t look pregnant?

RR: She wasn’t.

ES: ???

What happened was the Rapp family adopted another child who had escaped from Iran.