ABRAHAM: THE FIRST JEW

According to both Jewish -Torah- and Christian bibles, the first Jew was Avraham Avinu or Abraham. He lived in modern day Iraq, known then as Mesopotamia, but, having recognised and promulgated the idea of a monotheistic God, was commanded to move to Canaan and was bequeathed that land for all eternity where he began to a community of Jews.  

Some people maintain that there is an inherent difference between the Hebrews, the Israelites and the Jews, yet, this is patently false. We know this because Abraham instituted the actual practices of mitzvot. These unique rituals were practiced by Hebrews, Isrealites and Jews with small changes that survive to this day as the six hundred and thirteen commandments that all Jews are asked to follow.

Abraham is first mentioned in the Torah. 

The Torah, or the Tanach is considered Jewish law. It consists of five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

Genesis is the first book of the Torah and it is in here that God's covenant with Avraham is detailed in Unit 17.

http://www.chaver.com/Torah-New/English/Text/The%20Structured%20Torah%20%28JPS%201917%29.pdf

 In Christianity, both the King James Version, as well as the Catholic bible makes the same claim as is articulated in the Torah, above.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+17&version=KJV

 

http://www.catholic.org/bible/book.php?id=1&bible_chapter=17

There is no doubt that from a biblical perspective that Israel has original dominion in the Levant. It is also worth noting that the land that God gave to Abraham wasn't  'Palestine', but, 'Canaan'. 

Historically speaking, Palestine did not exist at this time, which was approximately 1714 BC/BCE. Palestine was created by the Roman Empire approximately 140 AD.