By DALIP GRECA
Part One
Memorie.al / On a cold evening in March 2014, together with Dr. Skënder Murtezanin, we traveled from the Bronx to Baldwin, a town located in the southern part of Long Island – the most populated island in all of America – which, in terms of population density, ranks 17th in the World. If Long Island were a state, it would rank 13th in America, in the USA – after Virginia. The population density is 5402 inhabitants per square mile (2,086 per km2.). The island has a population of 7,740,208 (According to 2013 statistics), while the town of Baldwin, according to the April 2010 Census, registered a population of 23,455 inhabitants. Baldwin is a residential unit that is classified as wealthy; the average income for each family is $72,456.
This is where Dr. Agim Leka and his family have settled since 1960, when he opened his health service office. At dusk, the house has a magical view, especially at sunrise and sunset, the view is rare. We stand for a while watching the sun “dip” into the ocean, while Dr. Murtezani makes the arrival call. Dr. Agim, accompanied by Mrs. Elisabeth, come out into the hallway and welcomes us with Albanian warmth.
Although they are not in good health, they look full of vitality and joy for the visit is read in their eyes. After greetings, Dr. Leka suggests that we go for dinner at the Oak Chalet restaurant, which is no more than 7 minutes from their house. It is a restaurant with a select clientele, where everything is memorable, from the oak tables, the alcoves, and the characteristic dishes of German cuisine, to the dim lighting, which creates a romantic environment.
The conversation starts there and Dr. Agimi remembers his youth, the war, his education in many countries, his arrival in America, his university studies, his medical practice, his specialization, his acquaintance with his wife Elizabeth, his research work, his service to the Albanian community, without forgetting his activity in treating the wounds of the Nation, his articles in The New York Times… and he has started this service since his youth…! Concern for the wounds of the Nation has been part of his national consciousness.
Later we return to Dr. Leka’s house and continue the conversation started at the Oak Chalet restaurant. Mrs. Elizabeth looks a little tired, but her nobility does not allow her to leave. He sits in one of the armchairs and follows our conversation. Dr. Agim Leka has something to tell us about his 90-year-old life, which since his youth has been full of events, where he has been the protagonist. He tells us that he was lucky for his family heritage and for the education, which he completed in the best schools of the time.
Family education left its mark on Dr. Agim Leka and determined his national orientation. He considered service to the Nation a duty, as a testament inherited from his grandfather; Ibrahim Leka Borshi, who had performed the duty of the District/Commandant of Berat and Lushnja, and his other grandfather Nebi Sefa. Even today, the services of his patriotic grandfather, who saved Ismail bey Qemali from arrest, are recounted by leading him towards Vlora through Myzeqe.
He is also proud of his maternal grandfather, Nebi Sefa, who was a delegate from Lushnja to the Assembly of the Declaration of Independence in Vlora on November 28, 1912 and a signatory of the historic act, as well as a major contributor to the National Congress of Lushnja in 1920. He could not help but influence his father, a prominent intellectual of his time. Lawyer Rakip Leka made a valuable professional contribution to the independent Albanian state, serving in high positions in the Ministry of Justice.
Dr. Leka says he is grateful to his father, who explained in detail the suffering of the Kosovar people under Serbia, suffering that was as similar as two drops of water to the suffering of the Albanians of the South from Greek repression and massacres. Dr. Agim’s father, Rakip Leka, had experienced the burning of his village, Borsh, by Greek andarts at the age of 16. His father’s stories gave a nationalist direction to his consciousness.
Dr. Agim Leka tells us that he was lucky to meet the apostle of Albanianism, Mit’hat Bej Frashëri, with whom he began meetings in his bookstore in Tirana and remained a diligent student of his ideas. Prof. Vasil Andoni, Prof. Abaz Ermenji and other nationalists also left their mark on his nationalist education.
ON THE ROADS OF WAR AND LIFE
Dr. Leka does not have difficulty rewinding the “tape” of his memory. He remembers that the fascist invasion of Albania found him among the demonstrators in Korça, where he was studying at the Lyceum. The organization of the Korça Lyceum Battalion, in March 1939, found him among its ranks, as a fighter, under the command of Prof. Abaz Ermenji. He was the youngest of the battalion, only 15 years old. In the spring of 1943, he was among the fighters of ‘Ball’ under the command of Abaz Ermenji, in Skrapar. There he had the opportunity to meet the head of the English mission in Albania, Colonel McLean.
That same spring, Agim Leka was a participant-observer at the ‘Ball’ Congress in Berat. (Two of the photographs of this participation were published by the publicist Ylli Polovina in the Illyria Newspaper in New York). The young Agim Leka was lucky enough to be at the Mukje Conference, where the communists broke the agreement signed (by the dictates of the Yugoslavs), because it recognized the right of self-determination for Kosovo, other ethnic territories in Macedonia and Montenegro, as well as Albanian Chameria, according to the Atlantic Charter. Dr. Leka remembers that on November 28, 1943, with a group of young men from the National Front, they met with the hero of April 7, 1939, Abaz Kupi.
“There,” says Dr. Leka, “I gave a passionate speech where I asked for the union of the Ballists with the Legalists.” Fate would have it, says Dr. Leka, “that on January 9, 1976, the hero of April 7, Abaz Kupi, passed away under his medical care, after a serious operation at the Mercy Medical Center hospital in Rockeville Center, New York. – “Luck was with me,” says Dr. Leka. “I left Albania before the war ended. On May 2, 1944, together with 100 Albanian students, since the war had interrupted schools in Albania, we traveled to Vienna to continue our studies.”
After a year, he successfully completed his studies at the Salzburg Gymnasium. The Salzburg diploma allowed him to enroll at the “La Sapienza” University of Rome. He retains a memory from that time; he had stopped in Milan, before going to Rome. In Milan, he was a random participant in a popular demonstration in Piazzale Loreto, where the bodies of the fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, and his girlfriend, Clara Petacci, were hanged by Italian partisans. – “I was impressed,” says Dr. Leka, “how the people who had been shouting for years; ‘Long live the Duce’ were now shooting the corpses with anger! The crowds are enthusiastic, manipulated, angry…!
EDUCATION – FROM KORÇA AND TIRANA, TO FLORENCE, SALZBURG, ROME, NEW YORK…!
Dr. Agim Leka’s education was in the most famous schools in the country and abroad. Due to the war, he had to be educated in several schools. He started at the French Lyceum of Korça, the best in the country. Dr. Leka studied there for four years and then moved to the “Francesco Krispi” Lyceum in Tirana, to later move to the “Cicognini” Lyceum in Florence, Italy. He would graduate in Salzburg, Austria.
Dr. Leka completed his undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Medicine at the renowned “La Sapienza” University of Rome, where he graduated as a surgeon in 1953. After graduation, he came to the United States to complete an internship in Jersey City, New Jersey. The battle for medical studies was not over yet. He continued his specialization at New York University and at the “Graduate School” of the University of Pennsylvania, where he specialized in internal diseases, with a special focus on Cardiology. This specialization took Dr. Agim Leka no less than five years, from 1953 to 1958.
FROM KENTUCKY TO NEW YORK
After specialization, in June 1958, Dr. Agim Leka was appointed as an internist specialist at the Veterans Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, a hospital of the American Government. He was also a lecturer at the University of Louisville, School of Medicine. The two-year experience he gained in Kentucky was valuable. After two years, he returned to New York. Dr. Leka does not forget the date July 1, 1960. It was a special day because, precisely on July 1, he opened his medical office in Baldwin on Long Island, New York.
Gradually, the small town became part of his life, while he was a tireless doctor, who was always close to his patients. The chronological calendar of his medical services is rich in dates and contributions. In 1978, Dr. Leka was appointed Instructor of Internal Medicine at Stony Brook University on Long Island. This is one of the well-known universities in the field of public research, although it is relatively new, it ranks among the most famous in North America. Dr. Agim Leka’s contribution to this institution was also valuable.
In 1994, Dr. Agim Leka was appointed assistant professor of preventive medicine at New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY. He would hold this position until December 31, 2002, when, due to age, he closed his academic activity, to continue his professional one. Dr. Agim Leka’s services are valuable. He was a member of the Educational Committee of “Mercy Medical Center” in Rockville Center, NY. At that time, Dr. Leka performed a valuable service to the community. He managed to connect Harvard
University in Boston with Mercy Medical Center in Long Island. This was done for the first time and attracted the attention of the media.
– “This,” says Dr. Leka, – was the first and only connection that the famous Harvard University made with an institute outside Boston. The arrival of Harvard professors in Long Island made a great impression and brought a valuable experience. The latest discoveries of scientists achieved at the famous Harvard University were published by professors at Harvard conferences on Long Island”.
This event did not escape the notice of The New York Times, which in its issue of April 26, 1975, wrote: “The association of Harvard with Mercy Hospital, one of the four hospitals of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, which encompasses the entire Long Island region, was carried out by Dr. Agim Leka of Baldwin, a member of the Educational Committee. Dr. Agim Leka said that after attending courses at Harvard Medical School, he saw the need to bring that program, close to where he lives and connected to his workplace…”!
IN SERVICE OF THE ALBANIAN COMMUNITY
Dr. Agim Leka is known to many Albanian families in the state of New York. They are grateful to the doctor; especially Albanians newly arrived in America, who, because of the language, often knocked on the doctor’s door. Dr. Leka tells us that his humanitarian medical activity for half a century of practicing the profession served patients of different social classes, from diplomats, ministers of post-communist Albanian governments who came here for treatment and examinations, nationalists who fled Albania after World War II, the anti-fascist National Hero Abaz Kupi, Albanians from Kosovo and other ethnic areas, who suffered under the genocide of the Slavs, as well as former prisoners of the communist dictatorship, who came to America after 1990.
There are many immigrants who have received his medical services and advice. Dr. Leka, with his soft voice, with his heart full of love and patriotism, says that as a doctor, as an Albanian, he has extended his hand and served with all his heart, all Albanians who have knocked on his door. His service in helping the Albanian community began in 1960, when he opened an office in Baldwin. Dr. Leka has served the Albanian community free of charge with visits, vaccinations and other services.
Here is what he declared to the “Jeta Katolike” Magazine in May 1972, when he described his experience with Albanian children during vaccination, gathered in the “Zoja e Këshilës të Mire” Church: “I have rarely felt myself so satisfied with the exercise of my profession, than when, without any material interest, I give my medical help, to the Albanian community, to my people, who are in need, and who are an inseparable part of our race…”!
But as a whole, the Albanian Community has been touched many times by the contribution of Dr. Leka. He has performed valuable services to the community. Dr. Leka, in order to help the Albanian community of New York with districts, ensured the connection with the Medical Center “Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center”, in the Bronx and the medical school “New York Medical College”, in Valhalla, in Westchester County; he created the “Albanian Medical Center”, on June 3, 1994. This Center was inaugurated by clergymen of all three religions, by Albanian diplomats at the United Nations and by representatives of American politics.
On this occasion, the Democratic Congressman, Eliot Engel, gave Dr. Leka a special award. The plaque with this award was read by Congressman Engel in the American Congress, on May 26, 1994. The award highlights the leading role that Dr. Leka played in the creation of the “Albanian Health Center”. This event also did not go unnoticed in the press of the time. The newspaper “The Bronx Times Reporter” of June 9, 1994, Studio TV Victoria and the newspaper ‘ILLYRIA’ dedicated articles and television chronicles to this event.
Dr. Agim Leka continued to work for 12 years with dedication in the service of the Albanian community in the Bronx, making visits twice a week to the open clinic in the Bronx, in addition to the one in Baldwin. Due to his age, on December 31, 2006, he found it difficult to travel from Long Island to the Bronx. A year later, on June 30, 2007, also due to his age, Dr. Leka would close his active activity in the office where he served for almost 50 years, in Baldwin. He was 83 years old, a whole life in the care of the health of citizens.
Dr. Leka has served the Albanian community in other fields, besides medicine. In September 1967, Dr. Leka, with his wife Elizabeth, a foreign language professor, and a group of Albanian educators, devoted to the National cause, opened the Albanian school of the Albanian Center in Woodhaven, Jamaica, New York. Dr. Leka directed the administrative functioning of the school, while his wife, Elizabeth, directed the academic side.
The Leka couple was fortunate to be joined in this initiative by Prof. Sami and Diana Repishti, both renowned and registered professors in the State of New York. Elizabeth Leka, the Repishti couple, Dr. Ramazan Turdiu, Nesti Andrea, took over the teaching of the Albanian language and Albanian history, Dr. Leka took over the teaching of Albanian in the older class. Also contributing to this initiative were: Albert and Joan Fundo, Mrs. Mini Domni and other ladies who contributed to the teaching of Albanian dances and songs. The City of New York made available to the Albanian community, public school no. 60 in Woodhaven, Jamaica, NY. The Albanian school was divided into five classes from 5 to 16 years old. The school was attended by 80 students. Memorie.al
