Jay O. Rappaport

Jay O. Rappaport, 71, peacefully passed away on September 15, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Jay was born January 11, 1950, in a US Army Hospital in Munich, Germany to his parents Charles and Eva Rappaport. They met and married right after World War II in Germany. Charles grew up in Brooklyn and was an American soldier stationed in Germany and Eva grew up in Berlin and was a holocaust survivor. Jay was the loving father of Marc and Matthew, both of whom survive him, and Jacob who predeceased him. He was a devoted son to his parents and a big brother to his sister Edith whom all predeceased him. His brother Perry survives him as do his nine grandchildren all who carry his surname, Rappaport —Morgan, Abigail, Maxwell, Mila, Emily, Raphael, Ella, Kieran, Mathias and an “extra” granddaughter, Avery Duesterberg.

Jay loved not only his family but the Jewish faith as well and lived his life taking in the joys of Jewish observance, customs and especially Jewish thought. Commenting on rabbinical commentary was second nature for him. Just as his parents had done for him, Jay instilled this love for Judaism in his children.

As a 6-foot teenager, he earned the nickname “Tarzan” among his peers at the Forest Lake summer community located on Sylvan Lake in New York state. (Growing up, Jay and his family loved to travel from Queens to their Forest Lake bungalow and spend summers there. It was an integral part of his early years.) And “Tarzan” was not only a fitting name for his physique but his athleticism and playfulness as well. Jay was a formidable defensive lineman at Brooklyn Tech High School. Brooklyn Tech nurtured not only his passion for the gridiron sport but his gifted mind too and prepared him for a degree in Computer Science at New York University just as the explosion of computing was about to transform society.

Jay’s rich, lifelong career as a computer systems analyst, programmer and consultant brought him not only financial success but to Judy Musicant, whom he met at work at age 22. Dating Judy proved to be a love triangle of a different sort-- Jay not only fell for the Jamaica Estates, Queens programmer but her 8-year-old son Marc as well. As much time as he spent driving Judy around Queens in his Orange FIAT sports car convertible, he would spend even more time at Marc’s Cub Scout meetings and little league games. He would prove not only a pioneer of the computer revolution but of the “modern family” as well-- he announced his plans to marry Judy and adopt Marc. Jay’s traditional, orthodox grandfather Gus of Cypress Hills, Brooklyn heard the news and would respond with the insight and humor Jay presumably inherited: “Nowadays there’s instant potatoes, instant coffee and instant rice— why not instant family?!”

Jay and Judy built a family together, first in Jamaica Hills, Queens and then Packanack Lake, New Jersey and stayed wedded for 25 years raising three boys. His sons Jacob and Matthew would look up to their dad and share many of his passions from playing football, to driving sports cars and mastering the computer. They dearly loved their father for the same combination of playfulness and deep thought their older brother Marc had always cherished. He will be hugely missed by his whole family.

Funeral services at Beth David Cemetery, 300 Elmont Road, Elmont, NY 11003 at 2:45 pm, Wednesday, September 22. More information can be found at https://www.kleinbergfunerals.com/obituaries/Jay-