33 years ago, on October 7, 1989, the Albanian community in New York held a Seminar on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the death of Pjetër Bogdan.

The importance of this activity goes far beyond that of a community, cultural, or academic event. It is unlikely that even the organizers and participants of this event were aware of how monumental the activity would remain in history.

In particular, history will remain grateful to Tonin Mirakaj, one of the main organizers, leader of the Seminar and author of a book that describes the event in detail.

The fact that the commemoration was made possible by a cooperation of Christians and Muslims testified to the pan-Albanian inspiration produced by the example and memory of Bogdan.

Between the past history and the reality of the Albanian nation in 1989, the Albanian-American community stood in the middle. This event also marks the beginning of a great renaissance that would put our community at the forefront of national challenges as it had only happened in the time of Noli and Konica.

The seminar coincided with the emergence, as never before, of the Catholic community of New York, which was turning the economic and social success of decades in exile into a great national force. Families who had once arrived in this country as broke immigrants had managed not only to survive but to achieve the American dream. They had built a better life for their children, had preserved their national, religious identity with cultural and customary traditions. And now they were ready to give more for the distant homeland.

Just a few days before the Seminar, the leaders of the Catholic community had bought the land where the Church of Our Lady of Shkodra would be built, in Hartsdale, which is today one of the national temples of the Albanians of America. United in a single church, the Albanian Catholics of New York were a community in an unstoppable rise ready to speak with an authoritative voice about the destiny of the nation.

Who better than them could do a Seminar in this 300-year-old Pjetër Bogdani.

Their success was also a success for the Albanian-American community. It was heartwarming the generosity of cooperation with Muslim brothers and other religions for this great event.

It was evidence of the new ambition of this community that the Seminar was moved from where it was originally intended, in the setting of a restaurant, to one of the spaces of Fordham University. The lecturers would not be well-known activists and heavy egos of the community, but real researchers and intellectuals, with academic titles and works dedicated to the legacy of Pjetër Bogdan.

Major events are often such that they coincide with and influence historical turning points. The seminar for the 300th anniversary of Pjetër Bogdani was important because it preceded the great transformative events of the time. Just a little more than a year later, communism would be overthrown in Albania, ties with the USA would be restored, pluralism would be legislated, and churches and mosques would be reopened with religious freedom.

Among the invited researchers was a name that would soon become the most well-known of the entire Albanian world. At the time when Tonin Mirakaj and his friends decided to invite Dr. Ibrahim Rugovën, he was the president of the League of Writers of Kosovo in Yugoslavia. He was invited as an Albanianologist, researcher and man of letters. Just shortly after returning to his homeland, he would be put in charge of the first democratic party in the Albanian lands in the new era.

However, although this first presentation with the community in the USA was not of a political nature, it laid the roots of a political cooperation that continued until the end of the life of the historical President of Kosovo.