Bill Branda

Har Shalom

Bill has been an active member of the Men’s Club for 32 years, both in the Chicago area and for the past 8 years at Har Shalom. With this award, he has the distinction of being honored as a Person of the Year in the Midwest Region (2004) and now in the Seaboard Region. Before moving to Maryland in 2016, he was a past President of the Beth Hillel Congregation Men’s Club in Wilmette, IL (2001-03) and later served on the Midwest Region’s FJMC board for 7 years. Bill served as the Communications VP where he introduced and managed the Midwest Region’s first website. At Midwest Region Bill also served on the committee for the Man of the Year Dinner, Managed the Ad Book and coordinated the Sefer Torah project.

In his career as a Marketing & Communications Manager Bill developed professional skills that have been helpful in serving the Men’s Club. At Har Shalom he immediately jumped in to serve our club as VP of Communications where he handles publicity, graphics and writing for monthly member updates. He’s an active board member and volunteers frequently for staffing our many events like the Brunch Speaker Series, Purim Carnival, and Men’s Club Shabbat.

Bill grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and is a Vietnam Veteran. He and his wife, Helen, met and married shortly after graduation from Univ. of Cincinnati. They raised their family in Skokie, Illinois where their children attended the Solomon Schechter Day School. Bill and Helen currently reside in Olney and recently celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary. Their oldest children, Aaron and Amy are twins, and are Jewish educators at the Berman Hebrew Academy. Their younger son Ben, is an attorney in Santa Monica, CA. With their family’s most recent addition, Bill and Helen now have seven beautiful grandchildren between the ages of 2 months to 16 years. They are both very active and involved members of Congregation Har Shalom.