LLERENA

LLERENA, city in W. Spain, near the Andalusian border. Jews lived in Llerena throughout the 13th–15th centuries, up to the expulsion in 1492. In 1391, it was the only community that was attacked in the region of Extremadura. In 1474 the annual tax paid by the community amounted to 3,500 maravedis. It increased to 35,820 maravedis in 1491, probably because Jews recently expelled from Andalusia had settled in the city. A Jew of Llerena, Gabriel-Israel, served as interpreter to Ferdinand and Isabella during the war with Granada, and won the king's esteem. There were also Conversos living in Llerena. Toward the end of the 16th century a permanent tribunal of the Inquisition was established there which became one of the most active in Spain. david reuveni was imprisoned in the inquisitional dungeons in Llerena from 1532, and from 1631 onward a large group of fugitives from Badajoz was tried by the Llerena tribunal with tragic results. As late as 1652 six fugitive Judaizers were burned in effigy, at an auto-da-fé in Llerena, together with the bones of a woman who had died in prison. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Baer, Spain, 317; Baer, Urkunden, 2 (1936), 233, 349, 398; H.C. Lea, History of the Inquisition in Spain, 1 (1906), 549–50; Suárez Fernández, Documentos, 36, 68, 81, 256, 257. (Haim Beinart)