The Jews have always been, and continue to be, a people for whom national history is hugely important. The story, as told in the OT Scriptures,1 stretches back to Abraham, who was regarded as the father of the nation. He responded to a divine call to migrate from Mesopotamia and came finally to ‘the promised land’, in what we would call Israel today, living there semi-nomadically with his family. He, along with his son Isaac and grandson Jacob, are known as the divinely chosen ‘patriarchs’ of the Jewish people.