ALBARRACÍN

ALBARRACÍN, Spanish city near Teruel in Aragon. Jews were living there in the 12th century. The fuero (charter), granted to Albarracín by the local overlord about 1220, includes regulations governing the legal status and economic activities of the Jews. In 1391 the municipal council attempted to compel the Jews to submit to its legislation, but the king opposed this move. The Jews of Albarracín suffered in the anti-Jewish riots in spain that year; in 1392 the gate of the Jewish quarter was broken down and several of the inhabitants were massacred. There is evidence that the Jews in Albarracín maintained their communal organization, social identity, and economic activities until the expulsion. Albarracín was among the communities which requested of Juan II in 1458 to ratify new communal regulations. The community was permitted to levy a cisa tax on foodstuffs and was released from a series of other taxes; the procedure regarding oaths was changed. Between 1484 and 1486 an Inquisitional tribunal operated in Albarracín, but for the most part the trials of the local Conversos took place in Teruel. The expulsion of the Jews from Albarracín, among other communities, was ordered in May 1486. The Jews were granted three months in which to comply; in July the king advised torquemada to grant them an additional six months. At the time of the general expulsion from Spain in 1492, however, some Jews were still apparently living in Albarracín and the aged rabbi Solomon urged his congregation to accept exile rather than conversion to Christianity. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Baer, Spain, 2 (1966), index; Baer, Urkunden, 1 (1929), index; González Palencia, Anuario de la historia del derecho español, 8 (1931), 479ff; Piles Ros, in: Sefarad, 7 (1947), 355ff; 10 (1950), 89. (Haim Beinart)