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