Was Abraham a Jew?

Les explains that Abraham was not a Jew in the strict sense. He was born of Syrian parents and came from the Gentile stream of humanity that descended from Adam, through the three sons of Noah, and through the nations scattered at the tower of Babel. Out of that stream God pulled the little nation of Israel by separating Abraham. Isaac went up to Haran and married Rebekah, a Syrian; later Jacob married from Laban, also a Syrian. But by God's decree and sovereignty, Abram is declared the father of the Jewish race. The Jew begins when God separated Abram out of his family in Ur of the Chaldees, and through his wife, a half sister, he had his first son, Isaac. Les says that if you want to be real technical, the first real Jew would be Isaac, yet God refers to Abraham as the father of the Jewish people, even though he came from another nationality.