Wednesday, September 4, 2013

The president and rabbi of the Milwaukee Synagogue for Russian Jews is embroiled in a family dispute now playing out in state and federal courts

Chaya Milchtein went to the Milwaukee County Courthouse to ask for protection from a father many view as a role model. "He has a congregation. He has a synagogue. He has the respect and love of everybody. They don't know," Milchtein said. Milchtein spent two years in foster care. In 2012, the District Attorney's Office charged Rabbi Alexander Milchtein with child abuse. A jury acquitted him in June 2013. His daughter is now 18, lives on her own and said that she fears her father wants revenge. "My father has said to me the police can't get him. The police can't hurt him. He's above the police," Chaya Milchtein said. Alexander Milchtein's congregation is strictly Orthodox Jewish. In court records, the rabbi calls his daughter "obsessed with sex and rebelled against his discipline by claiming abuse." Chaya Milchtein said that she's a lesbian and gay activist but believes this is more about control than a culture clash. "I think this has more to do with my father than anything I could ever do," Milchtein said.

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