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Rexh Xhakli (August 8, 1938 – April 05, 2020) was an Albanian American businessman, political activist and philanthropist. He was an important figure of the Albanian-American community, who has had a prominent personal role in the historical lobbying for Kosovo’s fight for independence. In 2021 he was awarded "Honor of the Nation" Decoration posthumously by President of Albania which is the highest decoration to be given in Albania.

Life
Rexhë Xhakli was born in 1939 in Fier, Albania in a Kosovar family. In his youth, he was a political renegade. He completed his early education in Ferizaj and Pristina, while in Zagreb, Croatia he studied at the technical faculty, but was forced to discontinue his studies in order to escape the persecution of Rankovic's government. In the mid-60s he emigrated to the United States, where he worked tirelessly towards liberating Albania from communism and help Kosovo gain its independence. His contribution within the Albanian American American Council (NAAC), the Albanian American Civic League (AACL), and many other organizations of the community as well as for charitable humanitarian causes are incalculable. He was among the most consequential figures involved in Kosova’s historic fight for independence and a champion for the rights of refugees, often inviting many into his own home as a family.

Activism
In the mid-1980s, Xhakli together with other Albanian-American businessmen and future congressman Joe DioGuardi founded the Albanian lobby, culminating in the establishment of the Albanian American Civic League (AACL) in January 1989. The lobby raised the issue of Albanian rights in Yugoslavia to the attention of U.S. policymakers in Washington. For more than twenty years, the organization has worked with the foreign policy leaders in the U.S. Congress, including Congressmen Ben Gilman, the late Henry Hyde, the late Tom Lantos, Dana Rohrabacher, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Senators Charles Schumer and John McCain, and former Senators Joe Biden, Bob Dole, and Claiborne Pell, to bring independence to Kosovo, equal rights to Albanians in Macedonia, Montenegro, the Presheva Valley, and Chameria, and genuine democracy and economic development to Albania.

In 1990, he was among the organisers of the first U.S. congressman Tom Lantos to Albania, the first visit of any US high official since 1939.

During the Kosovo War in 1999, he donated $150,000 to Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), supporting the Kosovo freedom fighters who fought together with NATO to end violence and repressive activities by the Milosevic government in Yugoslavia. Xhakli has met with American presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton as well with state secretaries Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright.

Philanthropy
Xhakli is known as a tireless philanthropist for various humanitarian causes. In 2015, Rexh and his wife Shpresa Xhakli donated €150,000 to NGO “Autizmi” to help to raise awareness on autism in Kosovo and help families whose children are affected. The donation was inspired by Xhakli's son who is autistic. The couple also organised multiple awareness and fundraising events several times in New York and Pristina to help the cause further.

Honours and awards

 * 🇦🇱 Albania: "Honor of the Nation" Decoration (2021)