Eliahou Soussan

31/05/1954

Naso (נשא)

Read by Claude Opus 5 (own eyes, project OCR_SYSTEM_PROMPT, no Gemini) | legibility=fair confidence=medium needs_expert_review=True | obstacles: dark green-black polished marble ledger under a date palm; the fronds throw a hard-edged shadow diagonally across the Hebrew block, and the sunlit part of the same stone is blown out, so no single exposure of this frame shows all the Hebrew; the Latin block is secure and its spellings are taken verb | Source: darkroom_batch_read_2026_08_09_taroudant | Photo: TRD_SEBAT_p1020695-web.jpg [Adjudication 09/08/2026, second independent reading of the same photograph] *** DEATH DATE DISPUTED, DO NOT TRUST 31/05/1954 ***. The engraved French line is degraded in this photograph and the two independent readings split: one read 'DECEDE LE 31 MARS 1953', the other 'DECEDE LE 31 MAI 1954'. The month word is the crux (MARS is four letters, MAI three) and the final digit of the year is equally soft. The second reading cites a carved Hebrew numeral 5714; I located that line and a palm-frond shadow crosses it, leaving 3 and 4 indistinguishable. Sebat's index card gives 31/03/1953 with 15 Nissan 5713, internally consistent. So: two of three sources say 1953, the applied record says 1954, and the photograph cannot arbitrate. The date is left as applied rather than swapped for another unverifiable one; a shadow-free photograph settles it in one look.

Cimetière juif de Taroudant