Handmaker, a senior community that offers independent and assisted living and skilled nursing, opened nearly 60 years ago thanks to a husband’s promise to his dying wife.

Isador β€œMurf” Handmaker was one of the founders of the skilled nursing facility, which opened as a community-supported nonprofit with the help of what is today the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona.

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But its roots go back to the 1950s when Murf’s wife, Mae, who was dying of cancer, asked her husband to build a Jewish senior nursing care facility that would be open to all faiths in Tucson. It took several years, with the facility opening in 1963.

Last month, Handmaker, at 2221 N. Rosemont Blvd., was sold to MED Healthcare Partners, the operator of more than 100 nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities in the country.

β€œThe sale is a positive for Handmaker,” said Phil Bregman, who served for years as chairman of the board of directors of Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging. He said MED Healthcare Partners has the purchasing power to operate Handmaker more efficiently.

β€œWe saw the benefits for the residents and the community of selling to an established multifacility group who were positioned to take Handmaker to the next level,” Bregman said. He did not disclose the sale price. The sale was finalized last month.

Bregman, whose late great-uncle was Murf Handmaker, said he will continue serving on the Handmaker community board under a reconstitution agreement among Handmaker, MED Healthcare Partners and the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona.

Handmaker will keep its name and its nonprofit status. β€œThe Handmaker family has been involved since the beginning,” said Bregman, remembering Murf who mentored and guided him in life after Bregman’s father died when Bregman was 19 years old. β€œHe had a special place in his heart for me as I did him,” said Bregman of his and Murf’s relationship.

Bregman said his great-uncle helped him develop his roots in the Jewish community after Bregman moved here from Pennsylvania in 1982. β€œHe taught me about business, the stock market and investing. He also taught me about Jewish values and the importance of charity and giving back to your community,” he said.

In the early 1990s Bregman, a University of Arizona graduate majoring in education, worked for Handmaker to develop an early childhood program, including a nursery, day care and preschool for the children of employees. He recalled his mother, aunts and cousins volunteering at the senior community over the years.

Hirsch Handmaker, a physician in Phoenix who is the son of Murf and Mae, said his sisters and their children regularly visited and read to the residents, served meals and volunteered in the business office doing accounting.

Handmaker began as a 40-bed skilled nursing facility and it now has 94 beds and a memory care unit. It also offers post-hospital rehabilitation and recovery services. The senior community has two assisted living complexes with a total of 93 beds, and 12 apartments for independent living.

The idea for Handmaker began in the 1950s, said Hirsch Handmaker. He explained that his parents could not find a facility for his maternal grandmother, Pearl Bloom, who suffered from dementia.

There was no facility in Arizona that could care for Bloom, a Jewish woman who observed religious rituals and kashrut, the dietary laws prescribed for Jews. Murf and Mae had to move Pearl back to New York where relatives there found a facility that met her needs, said Hirsch Handmaker. β€œThe pain for my mother was that she didn’t get to see her,” he said.

In 1955, Mae was dying of colon cancer at age 47. Before her death, she told Murf that he had to commit and build a nursing home for people like Pearl. β€œAfter my mother passed away, then my father fulfilled the commitment,” said Hirsch Handmaker.

Murf, who owned an auto parts and supply store, talked with other community leaders about building a Jewish nursing home in Tucson because it was needed. He worked tirelessly to seeing a facility was built, and he and Mae’s family were among those fundraising for the project.

The then Tucson Jewish Community Council and members of the community supported the vision, and the Charles Wilson family donated 7 acres on Rosemont where construction began for Handmaker nursing home.

Over the years, fundraising campaigns, foundation grants and support from Tucson Medical Center have raised several millions of dollars to expand Handmaker. In one instance, a $3 million grant from the Kalmanovitz Charitable Foundation of the San Francisco area, and a campaign spearheaded by the late attorney Lowell Rothschild and Hirsch Handmaker raised an additional $1.5 million in pledges to expand care in 2013 for residents with acute psychiatric needs and those in the end stages of dementia at Handmaker.

Since the beginning, Handmaker was open to people of all faiths and religious services were held for all its residents, a fact the founders were proud of and supported.

Handmaker β€œtruly has been an asset to the entire Tucson community for all these years. Even though it’s a Jewish agency, bishops and many other non-Jewish residents found solace and a high level of care there throughout the years,” said Bregman.

β€œThe employees are the real core of what has always made Handmaker the finest,” he said.

The Handmaker board began negotiations more than one year ago with MED Healthcare Partners to take over the management and eventual sale of the senior community.

β€œThe board and I, as well as the community, undertook the search for a buyer of Handmaker with careful consideration,” said Bregman.

β€œWe wanted to make sure that whoever we sold Handmaker to, understood the significance of Handmaker to our community. We are happy to have found MED Healthcare Partners, and I believe that we are leaving Handmaker in good hands who will continue to honor our Jewish values,” he said.

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Contact reporter Carmen Duarte at cduarte@tucson.com or 573-4104. On Twitter: @cduartestar