Rappaport, born and raised in the Bronx and Manhattan's Upper West Side, was the son of a clothier of Romanian Jewish extraction.
Rappaport entered Harvard University at 16 years of age and received a bachelor of arts and Bachelor of Laws degree in 1949, when he was 21.
He earned a Master of Public Administration from the Littauer School (today the Harvard Kennedy School) in 1963.


As a student, Rappaport founded the Harvard Law School Forum, which was originally dedicated to the memory of Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. and 102 other Harvard Law School graduates and former students on leave who had died in World War II.
The Forum's Friday evening radio broadcasts on WHDH in 1946 garnered positive press and inspired the participation of Harvard's then president, law school dean, faculty members, and students.

 The Harvard Law School Forum Inaugural event was held on March 8, 1946, "War Crime Trials" (Revolution in legal theory or law enforcement?). “
Unrest Within the Democratic Party” (Eleanor Roosevelt and others) – May 1, 1961- Part I, Part II ; Martin Luther King, Jr., “The Future of Integration” (October 24, 1962 – Part I, Part II); Other famous Forum speakers have included President John F. Kennedy, President Jimmy Carter, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, consumer advocate Ralph Nader, and Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

In the early 1950s Rappaport quickly emerged as one of Boston's most well-known political leaders.
The peak occurred when Rappaport succeeded Congressman John F. Kennedy in receiving the Massachusetts Jaycees "Distinguished Service" award as Massachusetts' most Outstanding Young Leader for 1952.
Kennedy's award was one of many steppingstones on the road to his becoming a United States Senator.
Rappaport's acceptance speech in January 1953 was mostly geared towards inspiring wealthier and more seasoned local businessmen to invest everything they could in Boston's then-languishing economic development program, and "to give more time, energy, and thought to community affairs."

Prior to that his efforts helped John Hynes beat James Michael Curley in the watershed city elections of 1949.
The following year Rappaport started to become a centerpiece of Boston's political reform movement when he created the New Boston Committee (NBC).
Rappaport received national attention while Curley's popularity spiraled downward.
The NBC reached its highest point when ten of the fifteen elected officials who served the city from 1952 to 1954 had been endorsed by the NBC.
After Curley's unsuccessful attempt to dismiss the NBC, as a reincarnation of the so-called "Goo-goos" that he had rallied working-class Bostonians against for years, Curley said that he quit the 1951 mayor's race because it was "imperative that...all the candidates endorsed by the New Boston Committee be defeated."
Six years later, Rappaport was one of the so-called "enemies" Boston's Rascal King aimed to bury through disparaging remarks published in Curley's autobiography, "I'd Do It All Again."

During this period Rappaport also worked in the John Hynes Administration, established a private law office, and taught a political science class at Boston University.
He earned public praise for creating the short-lived Greater Boston Area Council (GBAC), which indirectly led to the creation of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and Greater Boston's first public television station, WGBH-TV Channel 2.
Rappaport, born and raised in the Bronx and Manhattan's Upper West Side, was the son of a clothier of Romanian Jewish extraction. Rappaport entered Harvard University at 16 years of age and received a bachelor of arts and Bachelor of Laws degree in 1949, when he was 21. He earned a Master of Public Administration from the Littauer School (today the Harvard Kennedy School) in 1963.

As a student, Rappaport founded the Harvard Law School Forum, which was originally dedicated to the memory of Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. and 102 other Harvard Law School graduates and former students on leave who had died in World War II. The Forum's Friday evening radio broadcasts on WHDH in 1946 garnered positive press and inspired the participation of Harvard's then president, law school dean, faculty members, and students.
 The Harvard Law School Forum Inaugural event was held on March 8, 1946, "War Crime Trials" (Revolution in legal theory or law enforcement?). “Unrest Within the Democratic Party” (Eleanor Roosevelt and others) – May 1, 1961- Part I, Part II ; Martin Luther King, Jr., “The Future of Integration” (October 24, 1962 – Part I, Part II); Other famous Forum speakers have included President John F. Kennedy, President Jimmy Carter, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, consumer advocate Ralph Nader, and Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
In the early 1950s Rappaport quickly emerged as one of Boston's most well-known political leaders. The peak occurred when Rappaport succeeded Congressman John F. Kennedy in receiving the Massachusetts Jaycees "Distinguished Service" award as Massachusetts' most Outstanding Young Leader for 1952. Kennedy's award was one of many steppingstones on the road to his becoming a United States Senator. Rappaport's acceptance speech in January 1953 was mostly geared towards inspiring wealthier and more seasoned local businessmen to invest everything they could in Boston's then-languishing economic development program, and "to give more time, energy, and thought to community affairs."
Prior to that his efforts helped John Hynes beat James Michael Curley in the watershed city elections of 1949. The following year Rappaport started to become a centerpiece of Boston's political reform movement when he created the New Boston Committee (NBC). Rappaport received national attention while Curley's popularity spiraled downward. The NBC reached its highest point when ten of the fifteen elected officials who served the city from 1952 to 1954 had been endorsed by the NBC. After Curley's unsuccessful attempt to dismiss the NBC, as a reincarnation of the so-called "Goo-goos" that he had rallied working-class Bostonians against for years, Curley said that he quit the 1951 mayor's race because it was "imperative that...all the candidates endorsed by the New Boston Committee be defeated." Six years later, Rappaport was one of the so-called "enemies" Boston's Rascal King aimed to bury through disparaging remarks published in Curley's autobiography, "I'd Do It All Again."
During this period Rappaport also worked in the John Hynes Administration, established a private law office, and taught a political science class at Boston University. He earned public praise for creating the short-lived Greater Boston Area Council (GBAC), which indirectly led to the creation of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and Greater Boston's first public television station, WGBH-TV Channel 2.
Jerome Lyle Rappaport