snuggle in the desiccate champaign of northwestern Spain lies a piffling village that for a few hundred twelvemonth has hold up by the name Castrillo Matajudíos — in English , Castrillo Kill Jews ( or Jew - Killer ) .
How did it get such a name ? There are a few different news report . It may be named for a medieval massacre in which citizens of the nearby townspeople of Castrojeriz killed 60 men in the well-situated Jewish community there and drove the rest out of town , to Castrillo . Another account says that the area they fled to was at first called Motajudíos , or “ J. J. Hill of the Jews ” and an error by a scribe in the 17th 100 resulted in the switch from “ mota ” to “ mata . ” Yet another reading suggest that after the Spanish Inquisition in 1492 , in which Jews were forced to either convert to Catholicism or be exhaust ( or kill ) , the born-again Jews of Castrillo changed the name of their town to Matajudíos to prove their loyalty to their Modern religion .
However the name came to be , it front reasonably uncongenial , to say the least — but for a farsighted fourth dimension people in the region did n’t seem to notice . The mayor of the town , Lorenzo Rodriguez , said,“Those of us who have lived all our life in Castrillo Matajudíos do n’t give it a second thought . But the second you go elsewhere it voice spoilt . ” Well , yes .
In a referendum hold on Sunday , the town voted 29 - 19 to change the name . It will now be Castrillo Mota de Judios , or “ Hill of the Jews . ” Mayor Rodriguez , who had threated to leave office if the vote went the other room , was pleased with the outcome , saying,“the phrasal idiom ‘ Matajudios ’ did not correspond to the way this hamlet thinks or act as these Clarence Day , nor with our hamlet flag , which has the Star of David on it . ” He plans to restore the Ithiel Town ’s honest-to-goodness Jewish tail .
