A LANDMARK decision will see the tiny Spanish village of Castrillo Matajudios – or Kill Jews Fort – change its 500-year-old name.

Of the 56 – mostly elderly – inhabitants of the village, 29 voted in favour of the change while 19 went against it.

Others did not participate or returned blank voting slips.

The campaign to change the offensive name – led by mayor Lorenzo Rodriguez – has hit headlines worldwide in recent weeks, casting the Castilla y Leon hamlet into the spotlight.

Its new name will be Castrillo Mota de Judios – a gentler Hill of Jews – which is similar to the village’s original name from before the Spanish Inquisition.

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5 COMMENTS

  1. Olive Press readers will probably know that all Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492….
    Fewer, I guess, will know that all Jews were expelled from England in 1290……… they could not return until Oliver Cromwell allowed Jews, under his Protectorate, to found the Bevis Marks synagogue in the City of London……..
    This wonderful place(with a fine restaurant attached ) is still the base for Sephardic ( Spanish and Portuguese -speaking Jews)……..culturally very different from the Milliband-type Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe,whose language is Yiddish.
    Pope Francis on his recent visit to Israel met the two Chief Rabbis: Sephardi and Ashkenazi.
    June Brown,who plays Dot Cotton,the temptress of the launderette, in East Enders,made a fascinating TV programme about her Sephardic ancestry and
    spotted in the marriage registers at Bevis Marks the word “novio”..for bridegroom,showing that the expelled Jews retained their Spanish/ladino language and heritage, particularly music.

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