Re: Jewish Cassins
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In reply to:
Jewish Cassins
Wayne Cassin 6/17/10
Wayne (and Paola),
Cassin in both France and Italy is a fairly common jewish surname ... particularly in northeastern Italy (Friuli), and in southern France around Avignon. Although there are certainly many Catholic Cassins on the continent, I suspect that the majority are Jews. Interestingly, if you look at the distribution of the Cassin surname in Europe, it is very similar to the distribution of Jews there in general. There are some ethnohistorians that think that the Cassin surname is very ancient with roots in Israel/Palestine, and came to Italy with the Romans before the Common Era.
Renee Cassin, who authored the "Declaration of the Rights of Man" for the UN Charter, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1968, and is an icon of post WWII european jews. Check out the Wikipedia article about him. Also ... if you read French, take a look at the 1949 letter from Renee Cassin to a Gabriel Cassin discussing the origins of the Cassins (http://genforum.genealogy.com/cassin/messages/88.html).
Most Americans, Canadians and Australians think of Cassin as being mostly Irish, and indeed most Cassins in those countries are of Catholic Irish origin, but I suspect that MOST Cassins - at least on the Continent - are French/Italian/Spanish Jews. There are quite a few Jewish Cassins in Turkey as well, Sephardic descendants of Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 and welcomed by the Ottoman Sultan.
The identical spelling - "Cassin" - among the Irish and European Jews is a coincidence or accident of Irish spelling over the centuries, as there really is no serious evidence of a connection of any sort between Irish Cassins and European Jewish Cassins. The old story of sailors from the Spanish Armada (the "Black Irish") swimming ashore accounting for Spanish Cassins is pure myth. There isn't a shred of evidence supporting it. I believe that the Cassin surname is considerably older in Southern Europe than it is in Ireland.
I don't know how many Cassins of ANY origin have done their DNA genealogy (I am about to), but that would certainly be the best method of determining how we're all related.
Regards,
Richard Cassin