Alyssa Haughwout was born in 1984 in Queens and raised in Long Island. Her family visited Williamsburg throughout her childhood to attend their Tatar community’s Brooklyn Moslem mosque, which had been founded following the group’s emigration from Eastern Europe during the early 1900s. Haughwout served on the mosque’s board with her aunt, Marion Sedorowitz (interviewed for this collection on April 11, 2018), while working toward a master’s degree in art and design education from Pratt Institute. She eventually became the board’s vice president as well as the mosque’s caretaker. See this narrator’s full biography and oral history.

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Oral History Clips:

Alyssa Haughwout describes how her peers never knew she was Muslim.

See this Oral History Clip’s interactive transcript.

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Alyssa Haughwout narrates her family’s journey from Eastern Europe to Brooklyn via Ellis Island. She describes the origin of the oldest mosque in Brooklyn, which was founded by the Tatar community.

See this Oral History Clip’s interactive transcript.

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