Cassie Barrett: a Jew by choice

Tell me about your connection to your Jewish identity.

I don’t know how to sum that up easily because I feel like connection and belonging to the Jewish community is so deeply complex to each person and something I hope is always evolving.

I've been part of the Jewish community for just over 10 years now. I’m not born Jewish, but I loved the community so much that I decided to convert. For myself, I mark joining the Jewish community when I first knew I wanted to be Jewish, which was a bit over a decade ago. I formally converted Progressive seven years ago, and I’m partway through an Orthodox conversion now. With conversion, there seems to be this idea that you reach an endpoint and that's it – that’s your Jewish connection and identity cemented. I hope I'm never done with Jewish learning.

I also work in a Jewish organisation, have sat on a number of Jewish boards, and live in an area that’s embedded within the Melbourne Jewish community. It’s hard to delineate the connection when it feels like my entire life.

You grew up in country NSW. How did you become exposed to the Jewish community?

I grew up in Cootamundra in rural NSW. I didn't know anything about Judaism growing up. I didn’t know anyone who was Jewish. My total exposure to Judaism was A Rugrats Passover – that was it!