Raymond of Penyaforte was a leading Dominican canon lawyer and one of the key figures behind thirteenth-century Christian missionizing efforts toward Jews. He supported the training of friars in Hebrew and other languages so they could argue from Jewish texts, and he was closely connected to the Dominican campaign that culminated in the Barcelona Disputation of 1263, where Pablo Christiani debated Nahmanides before King James I of Aragon. His role reflects the shift from general anti-Jewish preaching to more organized, text-based Dominican efforts to convert Jews.