Photo Credit: Bob n Renee via Flickr

A group of Chasidic men delivered 1,000 tablets to coronavirus patients in New York City hospitals to let them connect to their families who are not allowed to visit, Sandy Eller reported Monday in Vos Iz Neias.

איבערגעגעבענע וואלונטירן געבן אוועק די ערב פסח טעג אויפצוסעטן הונדרעטע טעבלעטס אין די שטובער פון חולים אין NYU שפיטאל כדי די משפחה זאל קענען מיטהאלטן וואס טוט זיך מיט זיי. אשרינו, כלל ישראל פארמאגט אזעלכע געוואלדיגע מענטשן! pic.twitter.com/sONrC9eUg1 — אידישליך (@YiddishlechReal) April 8, 2020




The tablets went to patients in Weill Cornell Medical System, Columbia University Medical Center, NYU Hospital, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Lenox Hill Hospital and Mount Sinai Hospital. The units arrived already connected to each hospital’s WiFi system, so the patients could just click and connect.

But that was no easy task. A Chassidic volunteer who identified himself as Shloimy told Eller that “every hospital has a different system and we had to make sure that each device would work in every hospital since we don’t know where it will end up.”

And so the small group of computer savvy Chassidim had to solve many connectivity issues, since at NYU, for instance, every single device must have its own username and password to be hooked up to the hospital’s WiFi..

Families without WiFi at home were given MiFi mobile hotspots.