Born on 15th July 1840 in Tarnow, Arnold Chaim de Porada Rapaport, son of Dawid and Karolina, née Herz, was a councilor of the city of Krakow (1872-1881), member of the National Parliament (1876-1907) and the Council of State (1879-1907), president of the Society for the Care of Neglected Jewish Boys in Krakow, founder of a craft school for the Jewish youth in Krakow, chairman of the Aid Committee for the Poor Jewish Population in Galicia. Founding member of the Polish Gymnastic Society “Sokół” in Krakow. Lawyer, industrialist, financier and philanthropist.
A graduate of St. Anna’s gymnasium in Krakow (1858) and the Faculty of Law at the Jagiellonian University (1862). He defended his doctorate thesis in 1863. From 1870, he worked as a lawyer in Krakow and Vienna. Member of the supervisory boards of the Galician Land Credit Establishment and the Galician Parcelation and Construction Society as well as the Galician Bank for Trade and Industry in Krakow, co-founder of the National Bank in Galicia, legal and financial advisor to Länderbank and the founder of the coal mine in Brzeszcz.
Rapaport was the author of numerous brochures and a collaborator of the Krakow magazines “Kraj”, “Czas” as well as the Viennese “Neue Freie Presse”. He was considered a supporter of reconciliation and cooperation between the Poles and the Jews. He was a co-author of the concept of support for the Polish autonomists by the Jewish Religious Community in Krakow during the first direct elections to the Council of State. Moreover, he was the author of the application submitted in 1900 to the Council of State, postulating making the Vistula river floatable and expanding Galician railway connections. Highly respected and popular among the “elites”, he used to defend the interests of the Jewish population, both economic and political. Rapaport was engaged into combating the propaganda ritual murders, participated in the campaign against the wave of pogroms in Russia. In recognition of his merits, he received a knighthood with the nickname “Advice”.
Arnold Chaim de Porada Rapaport died in Vienna on 14th February 1907 and was buried in the Jewish part of the Viennese Zentralfriedhof cemetery. In his will, he left 400,000 crowns for the poor Jews in Galicia and 200,000 crowns for the Jewish Religious Community in Krakow.

Read more: Krakowianie. Wybitni Żydzi krakowscy XIV-XX w., Kraków and the Center for Studies on the History and Culture of Krakow Jews.

Photo courtesy of Nowości Ilustrowane , 23rd February 1907, nr 8, p. 17 (source: Jagiellonian Digital Library)