How can you take religion seriously if it’s so often used as an excuse for cruelty and evil?
That religion is sometimes used to justify vile behavior is an undeniable truth. But you can’t necessarily judge Judaism (or any religion) by its adherents’ behavior. Judaism should stand or fall on its own qualities – independent of flawed or even failed followers. (I’ll admit that if corruption and abuse were widespread among observant Jews then one might wonder if there was something wrong with the message. But my own experiences and the limited statistical data that exist suggest that, on the contrary, Judaism seems (with exceptions made no less tragic by their relatively small numbers), to have delivered stable and nurturing communities and families).