January 21, 2021 2:01 pm Rabbi Yehuda Yudi Dukes, the longtime director of JNet, a worldwide Chabad educational program, was among the longest-hospitalized COVID-19 patients. (Itzik Roitman/Merkos302/Courtesy of JNet)
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(JTA) Rabbi Yehuda “Yudi” Dukes, a Hasidic father of six who became sick with COVID-19 in late March and spent nearly 10 months in the hospital as he struggled with the effects of the disease, died Thursday. He was 39.
Dukes’ wife, Sarah, announced his death in a Facebook post Thursday morning hours after she exhorted her many followers on social media to pray for her husband.
Dukes became a symbol of the toll of the pandemic to many in the Chabad Hasidic community and around the world as Sarah documented his condition in Facebook and Instagram posts throughout his hospital stays. People around the world performed mitzvahs Jewish rituals and good deeds that including saying prayers and learning Torah in his ho