Shem is the son of Noah traditionally linked with the ancestry of many biblical nations after the Flood.
Genesis names Shem, Ham, and Japheth as Noah’s three sons. In the genealogical material that follows the Flood, Shem’s line leads to Terah and then to Abraham, making Shem an important ancestor in the biblical narrative of the Israelites.
The term “Semitic” was later formed from Shem’s name, although modern linguistics uses Semitic for a language family and does not treat the biblical genealogy as a scientific account of human populations. Biblical genealogies also assign different peoples to the lines of Ham and Japheth.
The question asks for the traditional biblical association, not a modern genetic conclusion. Shem is also the source of the English form of his name in terms such as “Semite” and “Semitic,” through later historical usage.