On September 26, 2026, the Chindawol community gathered in New Jersey. Elders stood with parents. Children sat in front.

The table was set with the food of home. This was not a farewell to the past. It was a public declaration that we are here, and that we intend to remain.

For nearly three centuries, Chindawol has stood in historic Kabul as a center of scholarship, moderation, and principled leadership. That inheritance did not end when families crossed oceans. It lives now in New Jersey.
Special guest Dr. Sadaf Jaffer, former mayor of Montgomery Township, former member of the New Jersey General Assembly, Princeton scholar, and the first Muslim woman to serve as a mayor in the United States, told the gathering that this event represented values she holds dear.
Building a community takes real effort, she said. Every step matters. Starting an organization. Bringing people together. Remaining present. Choosing civic life. Those steps, taken with patience and purpose, build something larger than any single afternoon. Each step, she said, is building something beautiful.

She congratulated the Foundation and the families in the room. She committed to working with this community so that people become more active and more civically engaged, so that the next generation does not only remember Chindawol, but carries its values into American public life with confidence.

❝We are not only preserving the past. We are turning memory into mission.❞

– Manzur Isamilzada, Founder

The Chindawol Foundation exists to carry our legacy forward in New Jersey.

Honor.

We honor our identity in the open. Integration does not require forgetting, and loyalty to our new home does not require erasing the place that formed us.

Empower.

We empower the next generation as heirs, not guests, so they grow up knowing who they are and how to carry that inheritance into school, work, and public life.

Serve.

We serve with wisdom in American life. New Jersey is our home, not a waiting room. We will take our place as neighbors, citizens, and builders, with civic responsibility, honest work, and principled leadership.

– Chindawol Foundation

This is only the beginning.