Handmaker: Tucson's Non-Profit Continuing Care Retirement Community

Handmaker: Tucson's Non-Profit Continuing Care Retirement Community Assisted living. Skilled nursing. Memory care. It is a non-sectarian, non-denominational residential and adult day programs facility.

Handmaker "Jewish Services for the Aging" is the only faith-based, not-for-profit continuum care facility in Tucson, Arizona. Handmaker is supported by many leaders of various religious faiths. Our facility provides a full range of services for seniors and adults with disabilities that include: Post Hospital Skilled Nursing Services, Independent & Assisted Living Residences, Adult Day Programs, and Long Term Memory Care.

Handmaker residents have had a busy week full of learning! In addition to the weekly Torah and Deli Class on Thursday, t...
11/06/2025

Handmaker residents have had a busy week full of learning! In addition to the weekly Torah and Deli Class on Thursday, the Brandeis Lectures have started up again!

On Wednesday, Dan Weisz gave a fascinating lecture on Backyard Birds, complete with a slide show of incredible photos that he has taken of these birds. This is first of a series of monthly lectures on this topic that he will be giving now through April.

And this afternoon, Art Friedman presented a lecture called "Mineral Madness", sharing his vast knowledge of minerals, as well as some of his collection. This lecture series will continue monthly at Handmaker as well.

We look forward to the rest of these series of lectures, as well as Art's lecture on Judaica and Antiques later in the month, and Harvey Wolf's Classical Music lecture series in February and March!

For more information about these lectures, contact Nanci Levy at nlevy@handmaker.org.

Handmaker was happy to host the Annual Luncheon for the Southern Arizona Chapter of Hadassah on Sunday. Over 30 people w...
11/04/2025

Handmaker was happy to host the Annual Luncheon for the Southern Arizona Chapter of Hadassah on Sunday. Over 30 people were in attendance, including some Handmaker residents who joined to hear the lecture.

David Graizbord, Phd, Director of the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Arizona, spoke to the group about how young people today connect to their Judaism and to Israel differently than some of the Hadassah members do.

Dr. Grazibord explained through a slide show, anecdotes, and quotes from interviews of American Jewish “Millennials” who are not religiously orthodox, that this generation approaches Israel and Zionism in part through “Israeliness”—an unselfconscious and largely secular expression of national kinship and solidarity, as well as of personal and communal purpose. All of which he writes about in his book, The New Zionists: Young American Jews, Jewish National Identity, and Israel.

It was a fun morning of learning and connecting!

Handmaker residents learned about the Lone Soldier program with BBYO Mountain Region students from the Tucson JCC during...
11/04/2025

Handmaker residents learned about the Lone Soldier program with BBYO Mountain Region students from the Tucson JCC during their Better Together Intergenerational Program meeting on Sunday.

(A lone soldier is a member of the Israel Defense Forces who does not have immediate family in Israel.)

The residents and students watched a video about the program, and then former IDF Soldier Dean spoke to them about his experience. He is currently a student at the University of Arizona.

The group then wrote holiday cards to the Lone Soldiers, thanking them for their service. These notes will be sent along with hundreds of others from people around the country to Lone Soldiers serving in the IDF. Students and teens enjoyed visiting with one another while learning about this important program, and showing their support for these soldiers.

Marlee has greeted hundreds (or maybe even thousands) of visitors to Handmaker with her warm smile and contagious laugh ...
10/31/2025

Marlee has greeted hundreds (or maybe even thousands) of visitors to Handmaker with her warm smile and contagious laugh over the ten years that she has worked as a receptionist.

We celebrated her retirement from Handmaker with mixed emotions today. While we are happy for her, she will be missed. She has promised to come back to visit, and maybe even volunteer!

And if you did not get a chance to say goodbye today, come visit her tomorrow at Handmaker, since she is working one last day then!

Handmaker residents celebrated Halloween with a MONSTER game of Halloween Bingo in the Great Room. Many residents came d...
10/31/2025

Handmaker residents celebrated Halloween with a MONSTER game of Halloween Bingo in the Great Room.

Many residents came decked out in Halloween costumes, with many witches, some funky hats, and masks too.

The Activity Staff went all out with decorations, festive cupcakes, prizes, orange punch and loads of Halloween fun.

And many other staff enjoyed getting in the spirit and dressed up for Halloween this year!

We had several creative witches working on a desert themed ceramics project with Julie Stein-Szerina today! They were wo...
10/30/2025

We had several creative witches working on a desert themed ceramics project with Julie Stein-Szerina today! They were working with other residents on a community mural, which will be hanging in the Rubin Assisted Living Neighborhood for all to see when it is completed.

Today they were glazing the textured tiles that they created two weeks ago, and that Julie had kiln-fired since then. Next class they will work on their smooth tiles, and then after all the tiles are kiln-fired, we get to put together the mural!

They are all learning so much, and it has been great fun for all to work on this project, thanks to Julie, and a grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts!

What a treat to have the Jewish Philanthropies of Southern Arizona Young Men's Group come to Handmaker with their famili...
10/29/2025

What a treat to have the Jewish Philanthropies of Southern Arizona Young Men's Group come to Handmaker with their families for a post Shabbat dinner singalong last Friday evening. Some of the musical young men formed a band that they called the "Handmaker Handshakers," and they got everyone moving and singing along to their lively music.

They began with Shalom Aleichem, but then also played some popular secular music - some Tom Petty, Paul Simon, Beatles, and even some Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong.

One of the residents commented, "I am not sure what it is more fun to watch, the band playing or the kids running around and dancing!"

Thanks to Jordan Levy, Nate Weisband and all the young men and their families for organizing and bringing their ruach (spirit/energy) and youth to Handmaker. We all agreed that it was so much fun, and that the Handmaker Handshakers will be back again sometime soon.

On Saturday, Team Handmaker participated in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Tucson! It was a beautiful morning to be outd...
10/28/2025

On Saturday, Team Handmaker participated in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Tucson! It was a beautiful morning to be outdoors, raising money for this important cause with co-workers, friends and volunteers in a sea of purple shirts.

Team Handmaker raised nearly $500, and the event raised overall almost $350,000! We were so happy to be a part of it, and hope to be here again with an even larger team in 2026!

It is always so fun to have the students from Tucson Hebrew Academy come to visit Handmaker for our monthly Better Toget...
10/28/2025

It is always so fun to have the students from Tucson Hebrew Academy come to visit Handmaker for our monthly Better Together Intergenerational meetings!

At their visit together last week, the theme was Rosh Chodesh (the beginning of the new Hebrew month of) Cheshvan. Rabbi Jesse Davis talked to the group about how Cheshvan is a restful month. This is a blessing, as it is in between the busy last month of Tishrei, filled with so many Jewish Holidays, and the month of Kislev, during which we celebrate the festive holiday of Hanukkah.

The residents and teens shared some of the blessings in their lives with one another and wrote down some of the blessings that they wish upon each other. The students wrote theirs on leaves and the residents wrote theirs on roots, and all will be added to a mural of a tree of life that will be filled with all of their blessings.

We all look forward to seeing the tree completed, and the teens when they visit again next month!

Last night the Handmaker Great Room was filled with 40+ women and girls from the community, gathered together for a mont...
10/21/2025

Last night the Handmaker Great Room was filled with 40+ women and girls from the community, gathered together for a monthly program organized by Rochie Leiter from the Tucson Torah Center.

While socializing with other women was a big draw for the event, the main purpose this month was to 'assemble care packages - filled with comfort, treats and heartfelt notes for the wives of IDF soldiers."

Yuval Malka, from the Weintraub Israel Center, spoke about how traumatic it is for the entire family when soldiers go to war, and the comfort that they would get from receiving these care packages from this group.

Everyone present put a little extra love into each gift, knowing how meaningful and healing they would be to those who received them.

In honor of Indigenous People's Day, Handmaker residents learned about some of the Indigenous People in Arizona during t...
10/17/2025

In honor of Indigenous People's Day, Handmaker residents learned about some of the Indigenous People in Arizona during their Around the World Class this week. Many had not heard of this holiday, and we talked about how some states recognize this day as a day to learn about and celebrate Indigenous people, instead of celebrating Columbus Day as the day that Columbus "discovered America."

We were fortunate to have Handmaker server Kimberlee join us, who is a member of the Tohono Oodham nation. She shared some of the traditions that she grew up with, and brought some "show and tell" too! We also learned about the Hohokam, Pascua Yaqui, Akimel Oodham or Pima, Apache, and Navajo people. Everyone agreed that the most interesting part of class was hearing from Kimberlee!

After learning, some residents stayed to create their versions of Navajo Sand paintings on canvas with paints.

Thanks so much to Kimberlee for sharing with us!

Handmaker residents enjoyed a festive and fabulous meal on Erev Shemini Atzeret, just prior to our Simchat Torah Celebra...
10/16/2025

Handmaker residents enjoyed a festive and fabulous meal on Erev Shemini Atzeret, just prior to our Simchat Torah Celebrations.

We had hoped to dine outside in the sukkah one last time, but someone must have prayed a little early for rain, so we had to move our meal to the Great Room. It was lovely to be together inside too, and Claire made us another delicious holiday meal.

Thanks to Claire for preparing the meal, to Rosalia for serving, and to Baruch for leading us in the blessings.

Hope that all of your chagim (holidays) were as sameach (joyous)!

Address

2221 N Rosemont Boulevard
Tucson, AZ
85712

Telephone

+15208812323

Website

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