The secession On 24 March 1869, a group of Orthodox rabbis visited Emperor
Franz Joseph I in the
Buda Castle, requesting their followers be exempted from the regulations. Several activists warned of this move, noting he was now merely a
constitutional monarch. The interview had no results, and the Emperor sanctioned the codex on 14 June. Elections for the local branches of the planned national body were to be held in October and November; the Guardians of the Faith launched a public campaign, exhorting "all those faithful to Judaism" not to participate in the process and announcing they intended to form an organization of their own, for they and the progressives belonged to two different religions. On 22 November 1869, a decree drafted by Chaim Sofer and signed by 27 other prominent Orthodox rabbis, including Schick, Benjamin Sofer, Zwabner, Jeremiah Löw, Meir Perls, Friedman and others, declared that "If we participate in the choosing of candidates, we accept the laws of the Congress, and will be considered bound in one congregation with them... Anyone who yearns to be a Jew according to the
Holy Teaching, must not partake in these elections." Andras Kovacs wrote that the traditionalists' success in forwarding their view of the events as a struggle for religious freedom – and respectively, the Congress' supporters failure to present them as a purely administrative issue – turned the Hungarian liberals in their favor. In early 1870, the Orthodox lodged a petition to Parliament, signed by the boards of 150 Jewish communities and accompanied with Rabbinical statements from across Europe, declaring the Congress' decisions were opposed to religious tradition. The petitioners were supported, among others, by Rabbi Hirsch and the
Rothschild family in Frankfurt and by Chief Rabbi
Nathan Marcus Adler in Britain. The issue of religious freedom was in the middle of public attention in Hungary at the time, as the liberals were attempting to limit the powers of the
Catholic Church, which was only nominally equal to other Christian denominations. When the matter was debated in Parliament on 16 February 1870, the traditionalist cause was supported by
Mór Jókai and
Ferenc Deák. Jókai reprimanded him, stating they were impeccably patriotic, as could be seen from their wish to send their children to schools with non–Jews. After a rapid elections process, 130 Orthodox delegates from across the country convened in Pest on 9 August 1870, in the Tigris Hotel. The debates were quick, and ended on the 24th. A provisional administrative body, "The Autonomous Executive Committee of the Jewish Orthodox Faithful in Hungary and Transylvania" (A magyarországi és erdélyi izraelita autonom orthodox hitfelekezet közvetítő bizottsága) was established, headed by Ignac Reich of the Guardians. The committee was meant to be replaced soon by a permanent directory. In the assembly, the Orthodox declared full allegiance to the Shulchan Aruch. Among other measures, they decreed that a rabbi could be appointed in a community only if he had recommendations from three recognized ones. They decided not to abolish Jewish public schools in communities that already had such, but to enact simultaneous education where there were none. The proposed Orthodox organization had a much looser structure than the Congressional one, and the congregations retained greater independence from the central administration. Eötvös died on 2 February 1871, and was replaced by
Tivadar Pauler. On 2 March 1871 the Congressional organ, the National Jewish Bureau (Az Izraeliták Országos Irodája), was formed and immediately recognized by the government. On 15 November 1871, Pauler also recognized the Orthodox Executive Committee. The Schism was now a legal reality. Across Hungary, communities were torn between the camps. Virtually all Neolog-dominated congregations joined the National Bureau; members of those were known as "Congressionals" (Kongresszusi), though "Neolog" – which entered the Orthodox discourse as a term for the progressives in Hungary not long before the Congress – became synonymous with it. In Pest, by far the largest progressive community, the local Orthodox were among the first in the land to secede, forming a separate congregation that joined the executive committee. In
Ungvar, the largest city in Unterland, a small dissident faction that formed already in early 1869 chose to ignore the conservative majority's boycott of the elections to the Bureau, and joined it. Another minority group did so in the heavily traditional Pressburg in March 1872, at the wake of Benjamin Sofer's death. Similar divisions, many stemming from local disputes that could now be institutionalized under the new laws, occurred in numerous other settlements for years to come; in 1888, the Ministry of Religions ordered that those who left an established community were to continue paying their membership fees for five further years, to tame the administrative chaos. Concurrently, there were many regions in which one of the sides constituted a solid majority, and communities remained unified. While few Committee-affiliated congregations demanded a minimal level of observance, especially in areas dominated by the Bureau, most did not. Even the Hungarian Orthodox, the most fervent in Europe, were willing to tolerate "nominal" members who were far from strictly religious, as long as they accepted communal authority and did not seek to turn their lackadaisy into a matter of principle. Concurrently, those who did not join the committee were disparaged regardless of their personal piety.
The Status Quo Already in the beginning of the schism, a third type of community appeared: independent ones, which shunned both the Bureau and the committee. A small number of congregations tending toward Neology chose not to join its national organ. Among the traditionalists, mainly, the rate of affiliation with the committee was slow. Even in Pressburg, the necessary regulations were only accepted in January 1872, after a prolonged and bitter debate. Many conservative community boards were no more keen on joining the official Orthodox establishment than they were in regards to the Congress organization. These independent ones, which remained a small fraction, came to be known as "Status Quo" or "
Status Quo Ante", a term that apparently was first used in a newspaper column on 22 February 1871. There were four main types of such: small communities that split from their mother congregations due to local disputes but chose not to affiliate with the administrative organ of the opposing current; congregations that enacted moderate reforms before the schism, but still employed a traditional approach and were not inclined toward any side; Neo-Orthodox ones, influenced by Hildesheimer, who did not approve of the Orthodox majority; and hasidim, known in Hungary as "Sephardim" due to their
prayer rite. The latter's motive was the fear of being dominated by the non-Hasidim ("
Ashkenazim"), though they claimed various reasons: for example, that the Executive Committee's regulations did not explicitly ban Sabbath profaners from serving in official positions. Many formed "Sephardi" communities of their own. Several Status Quo congregations were led by prominent rabbis: Jeremiah Löw kept Ujhely independent for the remainder of his life, and so did the hasidic Rebbe
Yekusiel Yehuda Teitelbaum (I) in
Sighet. The Orthodox majority's stance towards them was determined in the Košice rabbinical dispute of spring 1872. Rabbi Abraham Seelenfreind was not accepted by most of the congregants in that traditional community, and seceded with his supporters to create one of his own. They stressed their action was unrelated to the national dispute, but was a local matter. The mother congregation joined the Committee shortly after. The Orthodox press monitored the affair closely, warning of the danger the "Status Quo" pose to the committee's stance in the ongoing struggle with the Neologs. Meir Perls, a leading traditional rabbi, wrote Schick in support of Seelenfreind, who he believed was wronged. The rabbi responded in April, writing that considering the nationwide situation, all those who do not affiliate with Orthodox organization are trespassing the commandment "neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour" (
Leviticus 19:16) for the Neologs are a danger to the spirit, which is even graver than being a physical threat. This
responsa, wrote Katz, became an important milestone, granting
Halakhic sanction to the committee. The Orthodox declared a ban on all religious functionaries - rabbis,
rabbinical judges,
ritual slaughterers,
circumcisers and others - who remained serving in Congressional communities, stating they will never be accepted among or employed by their congregations. Based on Schick's statement, it was extended to the Status Quo as well.
Aftermath While the separation between the Orthodox and the rest was an official policy of the executive committee, relations between the sectors were never severed. In the field of burial, especially, many divided communities refrained from forming separate
Holy Societies and
cemeteries. In spring 1872, Chaim Sofer wrote Schick, proposing to officially
proclaim an anathema upon all Congressionals, thus forbidding marriage with them. The Rabbi of Huszt – who, at the very same time, attempted to convince rabbis in Germany to enact similar sanctions against the Reform communities in their country – refused him on practical grounds, stating both the government and Jewish public opinion will not approve. Though several conservative rabbis frowned upon this, members of the different sectors did not cease to intermarry. The ban on functionaries, too, was mainly declaratory. Virtually all candidates to those positions, except rabbis, were Orthodox Yeshiva graduates, and the prohibition created intense competition for jobs among them. Many ignored the ruling and served in Neolog and Status Quo communities, which did not encounter difficulties in that field. The Neologs opened the
Budapest University of Jewish Studies, their Rabbinical Seminary, in 1877. The status of the
Pressburg Yeshiva, which was recognized as a certified institute for training rabbis in 1850, was not harmed. The Schism deterred the Neologs, adding to their leaders' motivation to embrace a very conservative line in matters of faith, to avoid a total rift with the other party. Virtually all religious practices were upheld. The National Bureau functionaries feared that a complete break with the traditionalists would vindicate the latter's assertion that the Neolog and Orthodox constituted two separate religions, thus forever undermining their hope to bridge the Schism and represent all of Hungarian Jewry, a cause that they never abandoned. The government recognized the division of the Jews into three organizational 'fractions' ("irányzat") in 1877: the Orthodox communities, affiliated with the executive committee; the Neolog/Congressional ones, affiliated with the Bureau; and the Status Quo, affiliated with none. However, it never accepted the Orthodox claim they were members of different faiths. In 1888, Minister of Religion
Ágoston Trefort stated that all three 'fractions', while separate and independent, constituted "one and the same
religious denomination" (vallásfelekezethez). A similar position was reiterated by the government in 1905. Among the Orthodox, the official schism signaled the victory of the mainstream. Lichtenstein left Hungary to serve as rabbi of
Kolomyia in 1868, and his son-in-law moved to the
Land of Israel shortly after. Chaim Sofer, the remaining radical, served as internal opposition to the Orthodox establishment in the years to come. He constantly blamed Ignac Reich and the other former Guardians of the Faith for being religiously lax and corrupt. He was not in favor of a unified administration at first, and even after having his community of
Munkacs join the Committee he continued to demand decentralization. Hildesheimer, too, moved abroad, becoming chief Orthodox rabbi of Berlin in 1869. Rabbi Schick was the unofficial, yet uncontested, religious authority for the traditionalists in the country. After Reich's death in 1896 the Committee finally made plans for a permanent Orthodox organ. On 9 January 1906, the government recognized the Central Bureau of the Autonomous Jewish Orthodox Communities in Hungary (Magyarországi Autonóm Orthodox Izraelita Hitfelekezet Központi Irodája). The secessionist stance of Hungarian Orthodoxy was the most radical adopted by Jewish traditionalists in Europe. In Germany,
Samson Raphael Hirsch's attempt to establish
fully separate Orthodox communities met with little success, and most of the conservatives chose to remain within the old unified structures, after reaching various compromises with the
Liberal establishment. In Eastern Europe, where demands for religious change were limited to aesthetic alterations in some synagogues at the larger cities, the local rabbis refused to accept the proposals of their Hungarian associates to form strictly observant bodies apart from the general Jewish public, which was turning less and less observant. The 'Hungarian line', as it was termed by Benjamin Braun, reached the Land of Israel through the
Verbó-born Rabbi
Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, who spearheaded the formation of the
Orthodox Jewish Community in Jerusalem as an organ independent from the Zionist-oriented
Jewish National Council. A similar isolationist stance is maintained by other Orthodox groups originating from Hungary, most notably the
Satmar hasidim. The following table presents the affiliations of Hungarian Jews (from 1920, only in post-Trianon territory): The Hungarian Jewish currents remained intact in the territories lost following the
Treaty of Trianon in 1920. In the lands ceded to
Romania,
Czechoslovakia,
Austria and
Yugoslavia, the old division between the communities remained institutionalized. In 1926, after the two large fractions received representation in the Hungarian Upper House of Parliament, the Status Quo in the country decided to form an administrative body of their own to make them eligible. On 25 May 1928, the Hungarian government recognized the National Association of the Status Quo Communities (Magyarországi Status Quo Ante Izraelita Hitközségek Országos Szövetségének). All three bodies were officially unified in 1950 by the
Communist government, forming the National Deputation of Hungarian Jews (Magyar Izraeliták Országos Képviselete). Following the
Fall of the Iron Curtain, MIOK was disbanded and the old division gradually reinstitutionalized in the 1990s. ==See also==