Verified
What the tick
actually means.
A badge next to somebody's name is a claim we are making on their behalf. If it meant “they paid us” or “they filled in a form”, it would be worse than nothing — it would launder an unchecked assertion into an endorsement, and the people most harmed would be the ones who trusted it.
The rule
Every badge records one specific thing, checked against a named source, on a date, by a person.
All three are required to store it, and all three are shown to you. A badge missing any of them does not render at all — not as a smaller badge, not as a grey one. It simply is not there.
The badges
Identity checked
We have seen government photo identification matching this name.
Semicha
We have seen a semicha certificate from the body named below.
Member of a rabbinic body
Listed as a current member by the body named below, checked on the date shown.
Certified sofer
Certified by the body named below as a sofer stam.
Certified shochet
Certified by the body named below as a shochet.
Kashrut certification
Certified by the authority named below, per their published list.
Business registered
The ABN below is registered and active on the ABR, checked on the date shown.
Licensed trade
The licence number below was current on the state register on the date shown.
Insured
We have seen a current certificate of currency. Insurance lapses — check the date.
What they do not mean
- Not a recommendation.That someone's licence is current says nothing about whether they are good at the work, or right for you.
- Not a psak. Semicha is a qualification, not a statement that this person is your rav or that you should follow their rulings.
- Not permanent. Insurance lapses. Registers change. Every badge shows when it was last checked, and anything over a year old says so on its face.
- Not bought. Verification is not for sale and never affects where anyone appears in a list.
Nobody is verified yet.
This starts empty, on purpose. Seeding it with plausible-looking names would make it a liability wearing a verification system's clothes. Entries get added when someone at Benaiah has actually seen the document.
To be listed
If you are a rav, a sofer, a shochet or a tradesperson serving the community, get in touch and we will tell you exactly what we need to see. It is free, it always will be, and paying us would not get you a badge.
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