OLMEDO

OLMEDO, small town near Medina del Campo, in Old Castile, N. central Spain. The date when Jews first settled there is unknown. The town was captured by Alfonso VI a short while before 1085. In 1095 it was again inhabited and was granted a fuero (charter). The community grew particularly during the 13th century. No information is available on Olmedo Jewry throughout the 14th century. In 1458 King John II granted the community an exemption from payment of certain taxes and levies. Olmedo was the scene of a severe battle fought between the brothers Henry IV and the infante Alfonso in 1467. Although there is no detailed information about the community, it presumably suffered as a result of the war. In 1474 the community taxes amounted to 500 maravedis, while in 1491, immediately before the expulsion from Spain, they increased to 108,500 maravedis, the number of the community having probably increased by refugees from the south. In 1480 the Catholic monarchs ordered an inquiry into the complaint made by the community concerning the closure of the street   between the Jewish quarter and the town square. This indicates that the attempts to apply restrictions against the Jews in other Spanish towns were also enforced in Olmedo. After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in March 1492, Luis de Alcalá and Fernań Núñez Coronel (abraham seneor ) were authorized to collect the outstanding debts owed by the Christian population to the Jews who had left because of the expulsion. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Baer, Urkunden, 2 (1936), 81, 135f., 325; Baer, Toledot, 396; D. de Valera, Memorial de diversas hazañas, ed. by J. de M. Carriazo (1941), 123ff.; Suárez Fernández, Documentos, index; P. León Tello, Los judíos de Palencia (1967), 193. (Haim Beinart)