The Social Composition of the Pest Radical Reform Society (Genossenschafi fur Reform imjudenthum)^ 1848-1852 Michael K Silber I t is no easy matter to determine the social composition of the various religious trends in nineteenth-century Jewry. To be sure, no lack of impressionistic evidence exists linking Reform Judaism with the rich, the well-educated and the urban elements of the Jewish commu- nity, and Orthodoxy with converse characteristics. However, solid quan- titative data that would provide more refined socioeconomic and demographic classifications are elusive. The problem is further com- pounded when one abandons the broader categories of Orthodoxy and Reform in favor of nuanced divisions within each camp such as neo-Or- thodoxy and ultra-Orthodoxy, or the more conservative and radical versions of Reform. In Cermany and Hungary, the problem becomes somewhat man- ageable (in theory at least) for the period after the 1870s. Until then, all the Jews in any one locale, regardless of religious affiliation, were obligated by law to belong to one Jewish community. In Hungary in 1871 and in Cermany in 1877, legislation was passed which permit- ted, for reasons of liberty of conscience, the secession of a religious minority from the mother community. Consequently, the divisions between Orthodoxy and Reform could now harden into institution- alized molds in the form of separate religious communities. Even where the Orthodox elected not to secede, as was often the case in Cermany, concessions on the part of the mother community in the form of separate synagogues lent the Orthodox a more pronounced