Emperor Joseph II. (1780–1790) implemented a series of modernization measures including the issue of a series of patents and edicts to regulate the position of non-Catholics in the Habsburg Monarchy. With an edict for Hungary issued in 1783, Jews could settle freely in Croatia and Slavonia and in free royal cities. Jews settled in the northern Croatian countries mainly from Hungary and Moravia. The Jewish community in Zagreb was founded in 1806. Over time, the number of members grew, and Zagreb gradually founded a number of different charitable societies, women's and youth organizations, and in the 20th century, sports clubs. The community founded its own school as early as 1827. The period from tolerance (1783) to emancipation (1873) is marked by the struggle for equal rights, as well as a series of laws by which the community is increasingly integrated into the wider society.
In the first census of Croatia from 1857, 5132 Jews were living in 330 inhabited places in the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia mixed with the rest of the population.