Very few Americans went to Tiberias in the years after the War of Independence. The only visitors who came through the kibbutz gate in those days were construction suppliers and security officials. Or they were members of other kibbutzes looking either to find a mate or to escape the fishbowl of their own community. It was even rarer for a foreigner to show up at the kibbutz. Yet every year there was one couple from Miami who showed up each summer. They stayed for as long as they could. Some years they managed to escape the heat of the South Florida summer for months, and other times it was just for a few weeks. But everyone on the kibbutz knew when Sam was coming, and they were excited to welcome him back.
Rabbi Sam Groh waited for these summer trips to the kibbutz all year long. He came three times on his own, but on the fourth trip, he brought his wife Carol along. She worked in Miami for a local travel agency, the owner of which was a loyal member of Temple Brit Kodesh. He was not at all happy about losing one of his top employees during the busy summer travel season. But who was he to deny a request from the rabbi’s wife to spend time with the rabbi in the new Jewish state?
Rabbi Groh knew that he was not putting his life on the line for Israel like the kibbutzniks were. While his kids were playing tennis and hanging out at the beach in Miami, the kibbutzniks were sending their kids to the army. The end of the war did not bring an end to threats from neighboring countries. Nor did it allow Israeli citizens to let their guard down. Terrorist raids were always a possibility. Despite the much tougher conditions the Jews of Nof Kinneret faced in comparison to South Florida’s Jewish community, when Rabbi Groh set foot on the kibbutz he was greeted with the same respect any member of the kibbutz would command.
The rabbi knew he was just a visitor, but he did everything he could on his trips to assimilate into kibbutz life. He wanted to be seen as a part of the family and not as a tourist. At meals he would sit with former passengers of the Maharhash and try to pry from them as many details about their background as possible. He wanted to know where they were born, what had happened to their families, and how they’d survived. He was interested in how they managed to find a spot on the boat to Palestine, and how they were adjusting to their new life on the kibbutz. Some would tell him everything he wanted to know. Others could barely manage a sentence or two.
Lunchtime on the kibbutz was one of the highlights of the day. During the meal, there would be updates from the kibbutz leadership. These reports invariably included security briefings from army intelligence. The head of security, a very stressed redhead known affectionately as Gingi, would bark out the names of members who were on the schedule for security detail that night. Each kibbutz member between the ages of eighteen and fifty was required to serve shifts guarding the kibbutz. They were assigned either to the lookout tower or perimeter duty.
One day Rabbi Groh was sitting with Natalia and Jan and some of their friends during lunch. They talked about the monotony of guard duty, but also the danger that came along with it. A couple of the men reflected on some security threats they experienced during their shifts. Rabbi Groh thought it was an assignment that was only given to the men of the kibbutz men until the day he heard Natalia’s name called out.
“Natalia Gruber, perimeter duty,” echoed the chief’s voice through the dining hall.
“That’s you. You have to go on guard duty? But you aren’t military, are you?” Rabbi Groh asked, surprised that female civilians too were required to fulfill such dangerous tasks.
“It’s okay. Here everyone takes their turn to help out,” Natalia said with a gentle smile.
Rabbi Groh smiled back, though an uneasy feeling remained in the pit of his stomach. When the meal ended, the rabbi approached the security head and asked if he could help Natalia on guard duty. He felt the least he could do while he was on the kibbutz was take a shift protecting the community. Carol thought the idea was ridiculous, and she was relieved when she overheard the security head refuse her husband’s kind offer.
Unfortunately for her, Jan Gruber was exiting the dining hall with the crowd when he overheard Rabbi Groh’s request denied. “Gingi, you’ll explain to the rabbi all of our procedures for guard duty, nachon?” he shouted. That was all the young redhead needed to hear to know that he had been overruled. As Carol frowned, Sam exited the building with a content smile and a bounce in his step.
After lunch, Carol headed out to help tend to the kibbutz garden. Sam stayed behind with Gingi, who gave him a full tutorial on kibbutz security procedures. Natalia remained as well to make sure that Sam understood what he was getting himself into. It was not the danger that bothered Natalia. It was the twelve hours of staying awake throughout the night that frightened her. Nevertheless, she had served more than a dozen shifts and never once had a problem.
After he finished running through all the responsibilities of guard duty, Gingi turned around and unlocked a closet adjacent to where he delivered his announcements. He reached inside the closet and took out two rifles. He handed one to the rabbi and one to Natalia. Sam had never held a gun before, let alone fired one. This became clear to both Gingi and Natalia as soon as they saw the look on the rabbi’s face when he grasped the weapon.
“Sam, how about we go and practice a couple rounds before we rest up for the shift?” Natalia offered, hoping to diminish Sam’s uneasiness.
“Sure, that sounds good. Where can we do that?” he asked, wondering how the kibbutz members would feel if they suddenly heard gunfire.
“Oh, it’s not a big deal,” she replied, seemingly reading his mind. “We have a range at the north end of the kibbutz. There are always people practicing, and an announcement is always made before anyone fires a bullet, so everyone knows what’s happening.”
“That sounds good. When can we go?” Sam said, relieved that he would have a chance to practice before God forbid he would have to use his weapon.
“Let’s go now. Gingi will ask them to open the range and make the announcement.”
Gingi rolled his eyes and wondered why it was necessary to indulge the curiosity of the American, but he also knew that provoking Jan Gruber was not at all in his best interest.
Natalia took Sam to the range and offered a few pointers. She turned out to be an excellent shot. Sam was not. However, he at least learned how to fire the rifle, and so long as he didn’t freeze, he could likely hit a target from a very short distance.
She took leave of Sam after the practice session and agreed to meet him again in the dining hall at five o’clock in the evening. They would eat an early dinner alone and then head to the kibbutz gate to begin their shift before it got dark.
There was a nip to the air that evening, and both Sam and Natalia came dressed appropriately. Natalia was wearing a long-sleeve khaki jacket that was a bit small for her frame. When she bent her elbow, the sleeve slid up just enough to reveal the numbered tattoo on her arm. Sam tried hard not to stare but found himself several times taking a glance at the numbers. Natalia caught him peeking and quickly pulled her sleeve back down, an indication that she was not interested in sharing her horrific memories with him. She did, however, appreciate his paternal presence, and was delighted that he’d chosen to keep her company on her shift. She was used to serving guard duty on her own, and she felt that she was good at it. Usually nothing of interest ever happened, but there was always a chance that any night could bring an attack. Natalia took pride in knowing that she was doing her part to protect her community.
The first four or five hours of the shift went smoothly. Natalia took Sam on a preliminary tour of the perimeter and showed him the best way to carry the rifle over his shoulder while making rounds. The two shared several cups of coffee out of thermoses and continued their patrol.
Though slow and often uninteresting, perimeter duty was obviously important. Several years ago, there had been a few attacks on the kibbutz by terrorist infiltrators. The previous year two guards were killed, and another kibbutz member was stabbed in his bed when a terrorist snuck up on the guards, shot them, and made his way into one of the homes. The screams of the wounded alerted neighbors who quickly awoke and shot the terrorists, but three dead kibbutzniks were left in their wake. The entire community was traumatized.
These days, security had been tightened on the border and the Israeli Defense Force made frequent patrols around the ring of kibbutzim that surrounded the Sea of Galilee. While it was likely that the only company Sam and Natalia would have that night was wildlife, everyone on the kibbutz knew to take their guard shift seriously.
Natalia had been trained to know how long to remain by the gate, and how often to patrol the perimeter. She stayed within the fencing, never venturing through the gate to the other side. She decided she and Sam would make the first patrol together so he could get a lay of the land. For the second patrol they would split up and each take half of the perimeter. When they went their separate ways, Sam journeyed off on his own, mesmerized by the stars in the sky. He thought back two thousand years to when this region was populated by the thousands of students of the great rabbinic sage Rabbi Akiva. He thought of those students pondering the depths of Jewish law while gazing at the sky from the same vantage point he now had. For Sam, each step in Eretz Yisrael was holy. Though he was performing a very modern-day assignment, his head was totally wrapped up in the past. He would volunteer for guard duty every night, he thought to himself, if it meant he could have this spiritual time alone. While staring at the stars, he paused every few minutes to scan his surroundings, not completely forgetting the task at hand. It was during one of those pauses, when he looked deep into the darkness that lay before him, that he heard a faint cry and immediately lowered his rifle into a firing position.
Not knowing what to do, Sam turned and started jogging back towards the gate. He could not see more than twenty yards ahead of him, but he sensed that something was wrong. His jog turned to a sprint until he had just about reached the gate of the kibbutz. The lights at the entrance suddenly illuminated the scene. Sam could see that a man dressed in black and a turban-like head covering had Natalia pinned to the ground. Blood was gushing from the side of her mouth and her jacket and shirt were ripped open. Without thinking, Sam took the butt of the rifle and smashed the man so hard on the head that he immediately fell over. Natalia, despite her shock, reached for the knife attached to her ankle holster. Before Sam realized what was happening, Natalia had sliced open the unconscious terrorist’s neck. Then she collapsed into Sam’s arms and allowed her cries to finally pour out.