Jonathan Charles was 18 years old and living in London in 1978 when he decided to make aliyah on his own. "I was a passionate Zionist, I loved this place at first sight," he says. Today, he is helping to keep Israel a safe place for children to live and grow. He is one of two security guards at Keshet, an experimental Jerusalem elementary school made up of secular and religious children. School guards are a high priority this year for Keshet, located just minutes away from the Patt junction where last June a suicide bomber blew up a bus filled with students heading for schools in the area.

Jonathan, now a 42-year-old father of two small children, explains: "I wanted to work only at an educational institution. I wanted to guard children, to keep watch throughout the day. It is something I can really identify with." His own children, David, 6, and Daniel, 8, attend a different Jerusalem elementary school. "I didn't want to guard the school they attend because I didn't want any distractions during my work. You have to stay focused."

Jonathan is posted at the main entrance to Keshet, where two roads intersect and hundreds of children make their way toward the crosswalk at the end of the school day to find their parents or their ride home. Throughout our conversation, Jonathan kept looking around, constantly asking to be excused in order to patrol around the school. "I feel deep responsibility for the children at this school. I sit by the main gate to the school, and when the other guard replaces me, I continue to patrol. The times when the children arrive and leave are the most sensitive, because there are so many people outside, on the street, walking or driving by whom I cannot control. The idea is more to serve as deterrence. The terrorists make their decisions about a terror attack target based on the information they obtain and the observations they make. My belief is that schools like Keshet, where the guard is constantly alert and is taking his job seriously, are less likely to become target.

"It is all about the children. They are completely innocent in this tragedy. It is absolutely black and white—there is no doubt, no question that kids must be protected at all costs. The children cannot be the victims, they have to be the future."