While all these programs were getting off the ground, much was changing in the Jewish community centers. In the spring of 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee, within the House of Representatives, began its attack on Hollywood from its meeting room at the Biltmore Hotel. The group, established in 1938, initially sought to identify and investigate fascist and communist organizations. Immediately after World War II, the committee prioritized its search for communists. And no one was beyond its reach. Previn, for one, was faced with a potential insurmountable ban, or worse, when he was publicly accused of allowing too many leftists to participate in his film studio orchestra. The accusation was so serious the MGM head, also in danger, summoned Previn to a meeting. During the somber sit-down, he made it perfectly clear to Previn that communist sympathizers had no place at MGM. Musicians suspected of such sympathies had already been fired; once so banned, they couldn't even return to empty their instrument lockers.

This was part of a period of repression in the United States associated in the 1950s with the crusades of then senator Joseph McCarthy. His efforts led to government-sanctioned witch hunts determined to locate and punish communists and their supporters. In Los Angeles the Hollywood attack was only made worse by the city's native, anticommunist senator, Jack Tenney, who chaired the committee in California. As an anti-Semite, he went after Jewish institutions with special zeal, including the Jewish community centers. In 1948 he targeted the Soto-Michigan Center in Boyle Heights—an area composed of Jewish, Mexican, and Asian populations, mostly from the working class. With its multicultural community and working-class inclinations, the center was perhaps an easy mark. Tenney took full advantage, accusing its staff, members, and programs of being communist. The various, distinct reputations of each center thereby conditioned his attack and kept his attention on the Soto-Michigan Center, which he denounced as “left wing.”

On September 7, 1948, Joseph Esquith, director of Soto-Michigan, was summoned to testify before Tenney. Esquith calmly countered the charges, explaining that the center “was a laboratory of democracy where free speech, free association, and free assemblage flourished.”