כי היא חכמתכם ובינתכם לעיני העמים

ואמרו רק עם חכם ונבון הגוי הגדול הזה

After hearing these pesukim yesterday in Shul I was struck how silly they sound today. The pesukim say that the laws of the Torah are what make the Jewish people look smart in the eyes of the nations of the world and the nations of the world will praise us as wise people. Unfortunately, today, Torah makes us look like a bunch of primitive people who don't believe in science, are immoral and just out of touch with reality.

The dismissal of evolution, the age of the world, basically any science that seems to contradict Torah makes us look anything but wise. Likewise, insistence on the morals of the Torah, anti-homosexuality  slavery, genocide, etc. does not make us look wise in the eyes of the nations of the world, but rather outdated and immoral.

Religious Jews are increasingly being viewed as fanatical, bigoted and primitive.

This story, where Satmar kids are taught in camp to throw eggs at Prime Minister Netanyahu's car and chant denigrating slogans against him just confirms the view. Not only is Satmar not an עם חכם ונבון, but in fact they (and other Chasidic groups like Skver) are a cult and should be treated like one. See this scary post by the Jewish Worker about the total cult-like conformity in New Square.