RED LIGHT! Road-safety awareness and proper adult role models are the best insurance for keeping kids safe navigating busy streets “because a guard with a stick is not enough when a child doesn’t understand the significance or the basic rules. And the best way to teach them is by personal example” (Photos: Yaakov Lederman)

I t’s 8:15 in the morning at the busy intersection of Nesivos Hamishpat and Ketzos Hachoshen Streets in Modiin Illit (Kiryat Sefer) near the city’s largest cheder.

Right now Reb Dovid Segal is king of the intersection nudging a child here rebuking a driver there and most importantly moving the pedestrians along and making sure they don’t generate a traffic jam — not on the sidewalk and not on the street.

Now he gently knocks his sign on the head of a small child standing and chatting with his friends. “I’ll help you cross the street while you talk okay?” The children around him giggle.

“Not nice ” Segal chides them knocking his sign on the boy’s head again. “He just got it over the head how can you laugh at him?”

Reb Dovid keeps the young crowd moving and gives another head tap this time to a seven-year-old who seems afraid to cross. “Come on let’s cross the street ” he coaxes. “What are you waiting for? Oh I know you’re waiting for Chanukah.” More giggles but at least the crosswalk flow is smooth.

Segal tries to keep all sides in the morning rush calm and in good spirits but later after the children are safely in their classrooms he explains that the subject is no laughing matter. “Believe me I tremble with fear while I stand there every morning between the cars ” he admits. “I see things that the parents of these children don’t dream happen out here: I see how some children simply don’t know how to cross the street. I’ve seen accidents in front of my eyes. These kids must have angels watching them from Above.”

Well one of those angels is Dovid Segal himself and he’s not alone. He’s one of a growing trend of retired men — zeidies who are already marrying off their grandchildren — who spend their mornings and afternoons as volunteer crossing guards making sure kids in Israeli cities stay safe while running to make the school bell as anxious motorists press on the horns in their own morning rush.

While it’s been decades since Reb Dovid Segal walked his own children to school today he’ll never miss a morning at his post.