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

11/19/2025

Handmaker residents had so much fun making mini pies with students from Tucson Hebrew Academy yesterday!

For our November Better Together meeting, all were in agreement that the students and residents should bake Thanksgiving pies together. Chef Claire prepared the dough, and the 5th, 7th, and 8th grade students created some beautiful apple and pumpkin pies with the Handmaker residents. Creativity was on display with lattice tops and cut out shapes decorating the tops of many of the mini pies, and everyone was grateful for the help and guidance of Chef Claire!

We are also grateful for the Better Together grant that provides funding for these monthly meetings at Handmaker. And to Rabbi Jesse for organizing their visits.

Looking forward to seeing the students back next month!

11/18/2025

Another successful AgeWell Day Tucson in the books!

Close to 70 older adults in the community came to the Tucson JCC for a day of learning, connecting, and fun. They chose from classes taught by Rabbi Stephanie Aaron of Congregation Chaverim, Rabbi Avi Alpert of Congregation Bet Shalom, and Rabbi Daniel Price from Congregation B'nai Midbar. Along with several art classes, fitness classes, small learning groups, and an extensive resource fair. And after a morning of learning, attendees enjoyed a delicious lunch together.

The event was organized by a joint effort between Jewish Philanthropies of Southern Arizona, JFCS of Southern Arizona, the Tucson JCC, and Handmaker.

If you missed this AgeWell Day, save the date for the next one scheduled for Sunday, May 2nd!

11/14/2025

After working at Handmaker for 23 years, our dear Nahid is retiring!

Nahid has always gone over and above her responsibilities at Handmaker as an activities assistant in Assisted Living. She called many games of bingo, led exercise and arts and crafts classes, popped plenty of popcorn for movies, helped residents to and from activities, accompanied residents to their Lunch Bunch outings and so much more. But she would also happily sew on a button, care for an ailing houseplant, and make sure that the decor at Handmaker always matched the season.

There were many teary-eyed residents and staff at her send off party at the monthly birthday party. But we are happy that now she will get to travel, spend time with family and friends, tend to her plants, and take care of herself after taking care of residents for all these years. And she promised to come back and visit.

Thank you, Nahid! We mis you already!

11/12/2025

We had a full bus for our Out and About Trip to The Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures this afternoon!

Docent Marsha gave us a wonderful tour of the museum, sharing the history of many of the items on display, as well as pointing out some of the details that we might have missed on our own.

The exhibit on Ray Harryhausen’s legendary miniature models of the silver screen was fun to see, and the short film was interesting and informative.

Everyone really enjoyed themselves and were pretty tuckered out when Ramon came to pick us up. Thanks Ramon!

We welcomed back volunteer Monica, who joined us, and all were happy to have Lane join us as well. It was a great afternoon!

11/11/2025

Part performance, part interactive dance class, the Dancesequences Inc. Open Sharing time on Sunday was a whole lot of fun!

Karenne comes to Handmaker regularly to lead joyful movement classes with residents, but also has created and runs a program called Dancesquences, which is a creative group dance program that exists to advance inclusion through movement and dance.

We are so grateful that this group comes to Handmaker twice a year to share with residents. And on Sunday, everyone especially enjoyed moving to the gentle and beautiful sounds of live harp music by Sisiki!

Thanks to Karenne, Antonio, Zita, Jill, and Sisiki for making our Sunday so special!

11/11/2025

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.

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!

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.

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!

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!

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!