 If the school is subversive, then any teaching of social science that differs from the beliefs of J. Edgar Hoover (chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation) is to be labeled subversive.Due to tensions caused by the Cold War, Anti-communism, and McCarthyism, the Jefferson School was subject to Congressional hearings and Selsam and others received summons to testify on several occasions.For example, Selsam, represented by Joseph Forer, testified before the U.S. Senate's Internal Security Subcommittee on 8 April 1953, and, during Selsam's testimony, he often invoked the Fifth Amendment.