(JTA) - At a moment when the world could use a dose of hope, along comes Rabbi Yehuda "Yudi" Dukes.

In late March, Dukes was hospitalized in New York with COVID-19, a week after the otherwise healthy 38-year-old rabbi took ill at his Long Island home. Dukes spent a whopping four months on a ventilator, including nine weeks on an artificial lung machine. He endured four collapsed lungs, experienced a stroke and underwent a liver biopsy, among other challenges. He is believed to be among the longest hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the country. 

And then he began to improve.

Earlier this su...