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International affairs graduate David Rappaport ’81 was drawn to Lafayette by the curriculum and beauty of the campus. Artistic beauty and intellectual challenge continue to drive him today.
“I was born in Switzerland and spoke French and Danish. My interdisciplinary major was exactly what I wanted,” he says. “Professor[Ilan] Peleg was my adviser and head of the department. He really furthered my interest in the field.”
Rappaport remembers college as a time of developing confidence and self-assurance. He was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and in his senior year, a residence adviser. He is most grateful for internship opportunities in Washington at the Agency for International Development and the International Trade Commission.
“I envisioned working for the State Department or some international agency,” he says. “So the internships were phenomenal opportunities for me. Those experiences are the reason why I support the company I work for today in taking on Lafayette interns whenever we can.”
Rappaport continued his education after Lafayette at American University, earning his law degree, and was hired as assistant district attorney in New York. After five years in that position, he left for a brief stint in a law firm and then settled in on Wall Street for 10 years as general counsel. He is now U.S. CEO of global banking company Investec.
“It is a progressive company that is intellectually based, so it is a great fit for me. I love the people I work with and most important to me, the person I report to understands what is important in life,” he says.
This understanding has become increasing importantly to Rappaport as events have led him to examine what matters most and how he wants to spend his time.
“About 10 years ago, my younger sister was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer,” he explains. “She encouraged me not to care what people think and to do what was important to me, which for me was to pursue an interest I had in performing. On the train to work shortly after that conversation, there was an open call for a professional workshop. I went and have been performing ever since.”
More recent events spurred Rappaport to invest himself even more heavily in his passion. On Sept. 11, 2001, he and his wife were in a World Trade Center tower when the first plane hit, then exited and watched from 100 yards away as the second plane crashed into the building.
“As a survivor of 9/11 at ground zero and through watching my dad suffer with advanced Alzheimer’s, I am even more driven to pursue my passions. As such, I recently created a new theater and film production company, ABCD Productions LLC. We are launching our first show at the George Street Playhouse (in New Brunswick, N.J.) in June with Songs for a New World. Songs is a beautiful musical that captures the human condition from different perspectives – from the rich woman on Fifth Avenue to the ghetto boy.”
His experience as a lawyer in dealing with contracts, putting together big deals, and handling trial pressure has been an important asset in the new endeavor.
“I love that it is a tough challenge – this is even harder than the ‘concrete’ part of my life and I get the same rush from it as I did from trying cases,” he says.
Along with the parallels between his two careers, there are striking differences as well.
“The work I do at Investec is very real, concrete, and substantive. There is a right and wrong to everything I do there,” he says. “In the creative field it is more subjective and less defined and so you get to create the boundaries.”
Creating is what drew Rappaport to the theater.
“This satisfies my need to create something artistic and it puts me in a zone where I can escape everything into another world. It allows you to be something you are not,” he says.
Breaking boundaries is part of what defines ABCD Productions.
“We are seeking submissions of original, innovative material,” Rappaport explains. “We intend to produce a Broadway musical next. It will be a groundbreaking musical with multi-media (film included) that we bring to New York, start from scratch, and develop to the end.”
The current show has the same creative spirit. Rappaport, who will be producing and performing in the production, describes the musical as eclectic, with 16 different songs and stories coming together. Every song tells a different story. He believes the play is meaningful because its topics are relevant — war, terrorism, the economy, and the complexity of life, for example.
The play has some parallels to Rappaport’s life philosophy.
“In my opinion, the message of the show is embodied by the last song, ‘Listen to the Song in Your Heart and You’ll Be Fine’,” he says. “Everybody makes their own life; I laugh because that’s the way I want it to be. Plenty of people moan and complain and it’s easy to be that way; it’s harder to be happy. Each day is truly a gift. It’s not about the little stuff. What is important in life is family, making yourself happy, and following your passions while you can.”