clockwork_kiwi:
100 years ago it was common – even strongly encouraged – for observant Jews to be osek in torah and an intellectual field, but now it seems it’s either one or the other
That is so incorrect. Lets go through the countries Jews lived in.
Between 1880 and 1914 (The onset of WWI) between one and half and two million Jews came emigrated from Eastern Europe to the United States. The first generation did not have any degrees. They worked as laborers. (That was the big Shabbos obsticle in a six day work -week).
The children of many of these Jews did obtain college degrees. However, how many children of these one 1,500,000-2,000,000 Jews remained committed to Torah. The unfortunate reality is that it was so so few. A very sad reality.
Only in certain parts of Western Europe, which had a much smaller percentage of Jews was the idea of secular college education for Torah-true Jews a reality. But lets consider it.