COCA

---

COCA (Cauca), town in Castile, central Spain. The first documents regarding its Jewish community date from the 13^th century. An episode in 1320 brought it into prominence. A Jewish woman had committed adultery with a Christian and then had their child baptized. The infante Juan Manual permitted his Jewish courtier Judah ibn Wakar to judge her according to Jewish law; he ordered her nose to be cut off, and R. *Asher b. Jehiel (Responsa, 18:13) endorsed the decision as providing a deterrent to immorality among the Jewish communities.

In 1474 the community paid 700 maravedis as its annual tax. Taxes for the war against Granada reached 16,300 maravedis in 1491. No details are known about the fate of the community in the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in the following year.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Baer, Spain, 1 (1962), 323; Baer, Urkunden, index; Suárez Fernández, Documentos, 67, 78.

[Haim Beinart]