A committee of Catholics and Jews is studying religious textbooks used in archdiocesan schools for expressions that could lead to anti-Semitism.

“So far, one book has been examined and contact has been made with both author and publisher,’ Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan said. “There has been appreciation on their part of the fair-minded treatment given the book.”

The archbishop said the committee agreed that “any disparaging remarks and inadequate treatment of Judaism occurred either inadvertently or prior to the Vatican Council’s Declaration on the Jews.” The committee, he said, found in the first series “many passages which carry no bias, and are in fact the opposite of biased.”

“After this first series has been revived by author and publisher and found satisfactory to the committee, a full analysis will be released,” the archbishop said. He added that he, Father Daniel J. O’Connor, secretary for education, Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, director of the Interrelgious Affairs Department of the American Jewish Committee, and committee members agreed that it would not be fair to author or publisher to publicize the criticism since both have agreed to revise the book.

Jewish members of the textbook committee are Rabbi Richard Lehrman, assistant rabbi at The Temple; Charles Wittenstein, southeast area director of the American Jewish Committee; Edward Abrams, a laymen and graduate of the University of Notre Dame; and Miss Katherine Hertzka, a resource teacher for the Atlanta public school system.

Catholic members are Sister Alice Robert, S.N.D., chairman, a teacher at St. Pius X High School and Sister Mary Leonard, S.B.S., a teacher at St. Joseph’s High School. One more Catholic is to be appointed to replace Father William Calhoun, who was first chairman and is now a chaplain in the Air Force. The textbook committee was organized by Father O’Connor.

The book was read by each committee member and all questionable passages were discussed by the entire committee, Archbishop Hallinan said. He said the categories covered were distortion of Jewish or Catholic teaching, generalizations about Jews, passages thought to be disparaging in tone and Jewish messianism.

He said after the first series has been revised, then all other religious textbooks will be examined.

“In each case, we will not hold ourselves free to teach the truth as long as any errors or disparaging remarks remain,” Archbishop Hallinan said. “We hope later to do the same in regard to inadequacies relating to ethnic groups (Negroes, migrants, Puerto Ricans) or to Protestant forms of religion.”

Rabbi Tanenbaum, who spoke at a Christian-Jewish dialogue in Atlanta, praised the work of the committee. He said the committee by honest study and good will had accomplished what teams of educators and sociologists took piles of graphs and months of time to determine.

The study was proposed late last year by Bishop Joseph L. Bernardin in a speech to the Sisterhood of The Temple.

The bishop said, “We intend to do everything in our power, both on the local and national level, to resist every form of anti-Semitism, no matter where it is found, whether inside the Church or outside.”

Wittenstein said, “The American Jewish Committee believes it is the first time that such a textbook review has been carried out by Catholics and Jews. Other diocese have reviewed their textbooks, but we believe that Atlanta is the first diocese to invite Jews to participate in the process.”