Changing names after all these years (Photo: AFP)
Spanish town called 'Camp Kill Jews' finally changes name
Israeli Ambassador to Spain Daniel Kutner attends name-changing ceremony and praises act; old name was in existence since at least 1623.
Israel’s ambassador to Spain attended a ceremony on Friday in which the name of a Spanish town was officially changed from Castrillo Matajudios – which translates as "Camp Kill Jews"
– to Castrillo Mota de Judios, or "Jews’ Hill Camp."
A vote by residents of the town in May 2014 went 29-19 in favor of scrapping the name, which has been in existence since at least 1623.
Ambassador Daniel Kutner told the Associated Press that the town’s decision to commemorate its Jewish past was to be praised. “It must be remembered that the expulsion from Spain was for Jews a traumatic event of historic dimensions and set out the trajectory for the Jewish people from there on,” he said at a brief ceremony where the town’s new name was unveiled.
The ceremony came after the town officially changed its name in June to Castrillo Mota de Judios following a referendum and regional government approval.
The name-changing ceremony (Photo: AFP)
The decision brought an end to the embarrassment of locals, who frequently found themselves trapped into giving awkward explanations to outraged outsiders.
"When you travel elsewhere, you always have to explain, because people say, 'You kill Jews in Castrillo'," Rodriguez told AFP at the time.
"It makes no sense because we are descended from a Jewish community. We have a star of David on our coat of arms."
He said the town, near the city of Burgos, was founded in 1035 as a haven for a persecuted Jewish community, which settled on a hill, or Mota, in the area.
A Jewish community remained until 1492, when they were mostly expelled by the Spanish Inquisition, a brutal religious tribunal. Angel Palomino, an archaeologist, said it was thought those who converted to Roman Catholicism decided to change the town's name to prove the purity of their faith.
