Reuel Jessurun

Born in Lisbon as Paulo de Pina to a family of Portuguese New Christians, after a short stay in Italy, Reuel Jessurun arrived in Amsterdam and adopted Judaism. He was very active in the Sephardic community. Later he moved to Hamburg, where he died. His work in Portuguese, Diálogo dos montes (The Controversy of the Mountains), describes a conversation among seven mountains mentioned in the Bible: Sinai, Zion, Hor Hahar, Nevo, Gerizim, Carmel, and the Mount of Olives (Zetim). They argue about who deserves precedence, and King Jehoshaphat, who serves as the judge, declares Sinai the winner at the end of the discussion. Although the work was first published in 1767, it was known during the author’s lifetime.