A senior member of the group, of Jewish artists, ALEF, Rapoport says that his art is mainly based on three sources: Byzantine art, Rembrandt and Rouault. "... his images have expressively distorted faces, stylized elongated figures, and often deal with Jewish religious themes and the problems of hate and violence", writes art historian, Alla Rosenfeld.

Rapoport's family was a victim of Stalin's purges; his father was killed and his mother sent to the Gulag; he was expelled twice from art schools.