BUITRAGO

BUITRAGO, town in Castile, central Spain. The first information about the Jewish community there dates from 1290, when it paid an annual tax of 6,048 maravedis, a relatively inconsiderable sum indicating it was a small community. It was one of the four aljamas in the vicinity of Madrid and was still a legally recognized community in the second half of the 15th century. At the time of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, more than 50 Jews owned buildings within the town and valuable properties outside. Moshe Cuéllar possessed a huge and modern farm. Don David de Hija was then the majordomo to the duke of Infantado, the local feudal lord – an office occupied in 1482 by Isaac Adarique. The property of the Jews expelled from Buitrago was bestowed by the Catholic Monarchs upon the duke in compensation for his loss of the Jewish revenues. Although the majority of the Jews in Buitrago were craftsmen, some were very rich. At the expulsion, the majority went to Portugal and some continued to North Africa. After 1493 some of the refugees returned to Buitrago and were baptized. Six files recording prosecutions by the inquisition of New Christians in Buitrago between 1514 and 1532 are extant; among them was the municipal councillor (regidor), Inigo López de León. In Buitrago there were two Jewish quarters. One was by the wall of the city where there were about 100 houses and the other was outside the city walls, in Arrabal, where some 30 families lived. In each Jewish quarter there was one synagogue. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Beinart, in: Tarbiz, 26 (1956/57), 77; Baer, Spain, 2 (1966), 247, 485; Baer, Urkunden, 1 pt. 2 (1936), 81, 278, 420ff., 518; J. Amador de los Ríos, Historia social, politica y religiosa de los judíos de España y Portugal (1960), 244, 299, 767. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: F. Cantera Burgos and C. Carrete, in: Sefarad (1972), 3–87. (Haim Beinart / Yom Tov Assis (2nd ed.)