Zeitoun Memorial FoundationHillsborough, New Jersey

Updates

What has happened, when.

A project is proved by dated progress. This page is the foundation's record of it, newest first — and a promise to keep it current.

September 2026

The Cultural Center becomes a building in its own right Proposal

What had been an annex line inside the budget is now a separate building of its own, planned at $4 million and holding the museum: nine galleries covering the apparition and the five thousand years behind it. The campaign goal rises from $7.5 million to $10 million. The Cultural Center → · Where the money goes →

September 2026

A new website, and a new way to give Proposal

This site replaces the single-page one. It leads with what the foundation is building, where, and what it needs; it publishes the financials; and, for the first time, it offers monthly giving and named opportunities. What changed and why →

Fiscal year 2025

The annual return is filed and public

Contributions of about $74,000 and total assets of $991,000 at year end, including the Hillsborough land. Expenses near $35,000. The numbers, every year since 2014 →

Date to set

A visit to the land Example — to be written

The kind of post this page needs most: a dated photograph of the Route 206 parcel, three sentences on where the approvals stand, and a photograph of whoever went. Once a quarter is enough. Foundation to write, with photo.

Since 2019

The plans come to America

The as-built drawings and photographs of St. Mary's of Zeitoun, commissioned in Egypt, are handed to an architectural firm in the United States to be redrawn to American standards and New Jersey codes. The project →

24 January 2019

The foundation buys the land

A property on US Highway 206 in Hillsborough, New Jersey, next door to St. Mary & St. Athanasius Coptic Orthodox Church — the site of the memorial. About the site →

26 December 2014

The blessing of His Holiness Pope Tawadros II

Fr. Antonious presents the concept to the Pope of Alexandria in Egypt and receives his letter of blessing and encouragement. The blessings →

2014

Zeitoun Memorial Foundation Inc is formed

Incorporated in New Jersey and recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, EIN 46-1785264.

Follow the build

A few emails a year, when there is something to show: a permit, a drawing, a photograph from the site.