ABSTRACT
Jews believe themselves to be descended from the Patriarch Abraham who Biblical narratives and genealogies suggest lived somtime between 1700-1900 B.C.E. Abraham was a native of the Middle Eastern city of Ur (in present-day Iraq). God promised that if he left his comfortable life, he would become the father of a great nation. Even though he and his wife were not young and they had no children, Abraham accepted the call and became a nomadic herdsman. In the course of time, he had a son, Ishmael (c.1850
