Max Raskin

Max Raskin (November 8, 1902 – August 22, 1984) was a Belarusian-born Jewish American lawyer and judge who served as Milwaukee City Attorney from 1932 to 1936 and later as a judge of the Wisconsin Circuit Court from 1963 to 1980.

Early life Raskin was born to Jewish parents in Vitebsk, a majority-Jewish city in the Russian Empire (in what is now Belarus), and emigrated with his family at the age of nine. He graduated from the Marquette University Law School in 1926 and practiced in Milwaukee as a labor law attorney.

Political career

Raskin ran unsuccessfully for Milwaukee County District Attorney in 1930. In 1932, he was elected Milwaukee City Attorney as a Socialist, unseating nonpartisan incumbent John M. Niven. After his election, Raskin appointed former judge and Socialist state senator William F. Quick as his first assistant and employed Edwin Knappe, a former Socialist state representative, as an assistant city attorney. As city attorney, Raskin collaborated closely with Mayor Daniel W. Hoan, also a Socialist, and required assistant city attorneys to relinquish any employment in private practice. He was harshly criticized by the conservative Milwaukee Sentinel for "his refusal to prosecute communistic rioters".

Raskin was a Wisconsin delegate at the 1932 Socialist National Convention, which was held in Milwaukee.

Raskin was defeated in his 1936 re-election bid, and thereafter reentered private practice. In 1937, he was elected as a national committeeman of the Socialist Party of America but, in 1940, he left the party and joined the Wisconsin Progressive Party. In 1944, he became a Democrat. Raskin served on the court until 1973 and, following his mandatory retirement at the age of 70, continued to serve the state as a reserve judge. In that capacity, he stepped in as Acting Circuit Court Judge in Waukesha County for Judge William E. Gramling during a lengthy struggle with cancer. His grandnephew is Congressman Jamie Raskin.