On a historical note, the 'Protocols' was originally intended as racist satire, based on the unlikely premise of a leak from the key plotters in a conspiracy. It was immediately received as if it were genuine.
10 of the 15 leaders of the Russian-supported socialist revolution in Germany were Jewish: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Revolution_of_1918%E2%8...
It would be interesting to compare that to the percentage of the German population that was Jewish at the time.
As another example of how Jews were overrepresented in intellectual fields, the German science community, which had up to this point been among the leading ones in the world, took a serious blow in the 1930s and 1940s because all the Jewish scientists had to emigrate. It can be argued that Germany never quite recovered from that brain drain.
(Disclaimer: I'm not a historian. However, I'm German myself and have studied my country's history to a certain degree.)
If it's so unsurprising, why does it keep being disparagingly referred to as a conspiracy theory?
> the only viable career paths for them were as merchants or scholars
Does instigating a civil war/revolution/coup fall under trade, or academia?
So no, this is not an example of out of control censorship or a witch hunt or even a "mere accusation" ruining someone's life, nor was it simply that he was an opponent of Roosevelt (who, like every US president, had many political opponents). This is an example of someone who was fomenting religious and ethnic divisions by spreading the propaganda of one of America's adversaries -- while also being indirectly funded by that adversary.