Since you aren't so clear in what they may have been the first choice in, one can assume you mean in being the "chosen people".
The answer towards that is that our Creator, the Most High always knew who He'd choose from the start and the Israelites were definitely His first choice, through Noeh, Shem, and Abraham, their ancestors.
Note: It should be noted that Israelites aren't and weren't ancestors to Jewish peoples, but ancestors to those typically called "black" in the US.
what or who people hate is an individual choice.
it did not matter as they had not choice.
by Jewish people (the same as today).
Herzl, assigned to the Dreyfus trial in Paris by an Austrian newspaper, saw that anti-Antisemitism could not be eliminated in Europe. He sought another land for the Jewish People - Zion (Israel). He became a Zionist because he also realized that Israel, which has been the homeland of the Jewish people as long as Jewish people have existed, is the only realistic, rational choice of homeland for the Jewish people.
The answer depends somewhat on where you're talking about.
The prophet Abraham was the first Jew.
Adolf Hitler
Their choice was to be circumsized or leave.
The first Jew, according to Jewish tradition, was Abraham, who lived around 4000 years ago. The first Christian is unknown, but would have been the immediate followers of Jesus.
He banned them from certain jobs.
The First Destruction had just occurred.
Jewish tradition and scripture hold that it was Abraham, in about 2000 BCE