The last decades of Austro-Hungarian Monarchy could be considered to be the peak of Jewish life in Zagreb. Jews were more and more accultured and present in the wider society. The Jewish community was a community of individuals of diverse Jewish intellectual and religious interests, some fully accultured, others bilingual or multilingual, and the most of them worshippers of the Reform Judaism. Jews took part in the development of civic societies, so Jacques Epstein (1822–1859) in 1846 supported the establishment of the oldest charitable society in Croatia, The Society of Humanity. In the 2nd half of the 19th century, many Jewish societies appeared, especially women’s organizations. At the end of the 19th century, Zionism appeared in Zagreb, and at first attracted the students from Zagreb who were studying in the centers of the Monarchy. Sports societies also sprang up within the Zionist movement, of which the most famous was Sports and gymnastics society Makabi. Until the beginning of the 20th century some Jewish individuals in Croatia were given a peerage, e. g. Deutsch (Maceljski) and Alexander (Sesvetski).
An important characteristic of a Jewish community, and of a civic society are the donations by wealthier members of the community. Two donations by Jewish individuals decorate Zrinjevac Park – the Music Pavilion, the donation by Eduard Prister, and the Meteorological Column (i.e. Weather Station), the donation by Adolf Holzer.
At the time of an increasing urbanization, integration and economic development, the First World War broke out, and it ended with the collapse of the Monarchy, and the transformation of the whole continent. Due to the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, her Jewish citizens found themselves amidst different nation-state projects. Among others, one of them was created from south-Slavic regions of the extinguished Monarchy – the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Due to the creation of the new state, the political and economic center and their dynamic shifted, but in this period Zagreb, and to some extent Osijek, became undisputable Jewish center sin Croatia.