RPL Fellow Josh Wolfsun Says Organizing is Gritty Hope

Josh Wolfsun, MRPL '24 and RPL’s Organizing Fellow 2024-25, has known since childhood that organizing is inseparable from community and relationships. Wolfsun learned from his parents’ example, being the son of two mothers who were both lifelong organizers in the women’s movement. By age 12, he was involved in Hurricane Katrina relief for New Orleans. In middle school, he reported his school to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Today, he works with progressive organizations and campaigns around organizing, communications, and strategy.  

Throughout Wolfsun’s upbringing, he found that as the only Jewish kid in his class, religion proved to be a “bigger differentiator than having two moms.” Since then, he says, “Judaism and my relationship with the Jewish community has always been there in the background of my organizing.” During college he was involved in the Open Hillel Movement, and studying religion became “a way to re-ground and re-discover . . . the way that religion can strengthen our movements and organizing work.” 

Wolfsun continued this inquiry during his Master of Religion and Public Life studies at Harvard Divinity School, culminating with his capstone project “Values First: Building Progressive Vision and Meaning.” Wolfsun reflects that in the world of social change, organizers often find themselves caught in a cycle of reaction—resisting harmful systems, breaking barriers, and pushing for incremental reforms. But what happens when the work, despite clear goals and measurable wins, feels hollow? Thinking back on his own campaign experiences where volunteer recruitment stalled and messages failed to resonate, Wolfsun explains that the problem was not simply about messaging—it was about fundamental frameworks.  

“It was a problem of us not being square with ourselves about what it is that we believe in, what a meaningful life looks like, about the kinds of lives and experiences we want to enable for people.” Wolfsun calls this experience within organizing the problem of “thinness.” 

Wolfsun traces the ideological roots of “thinness” to dominant cultural narratives, which, he argues, have framed success in narrow, market-driven terms.  

“Those ideological constructs and existing frameworks offer visions of identity and achievement—for example, a billionaire as a moral exemplar, or fixed ideas of gender and race—but they leave little room for alternative imaginaries.” 

Organizing movements that position themselves in opposition to these hegemonic narratives often struggle to sustain momentum because they “lack a clear articulation of that vision” of the world they want to build, Wolfsun says.  

“The trap for organizers right now is that we either end up only critiquing systems that we currently have . . . or we pursue small ball policy fixes that . . . don’t offer an alternative vision to change.” 

Furthermore, organizers often struggle to build sustainable movements because, Wolfsun explains, “we either work ourselves to exhaustion, or we burn out and leave. Sustainability rests on two things: relationships and meaning. You can win a bill but burn out everybody in your organization, and then you have nothing left at the end of the day—that’s a “failed success.” You can lose a campaign but build relationships, have an energized group, and gain more power going forward—that’s a “successful failure.” Building real relationships and leaning on each other is critical. We also must have a clear sense of what makes this work meaningful to us.” 

Wolfsun continues, “Before HDS, I worked on a gubernatorial campaign. We lost. At the end of the campaign, I said to myself, ‘I’m exhausted, I just need to take a break.’ The work was no longer filling me up. But, at the end of my four-month break, I still didn’t feel motivated to go back. After earning my Master of Religion and Public Life (MRPL), I understood why: I’d lost touch with what made the work meaningful, why I was there, and the miraculous things we can build together. The Religion and Public Life program helped me reconnect with that.” 

Wolfsun’s current project focuses on constructing alternative visions. This involves cultivating a shared moral imagination—a collective ability to envision meaningful, just futures. He emphasizes that moral imagination requires two key elements: “One is thinking about and having a vision of how the world works. The other is knowing what we want.” 

Rejecting utopian finality, Wolfsun offers a grounded philosophy shaped by the realities of organizing.  

“I do not believe that the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice . . . The universe bends toward entropy, unpredictability, and change. Yet, there remains profound hope—not in certainty, but in persistent effort. We always have capacity together . . . to build meaningful relationships and lives, and the structures that support them.”  

For Wolfsun, this gritty hope is sustained not only by the possibility of political wins but by the relationships forged in the work. “Many of the most resilient organizations . . . are the ones where we know people as people and support one another in working to accomplish goals.” These relationships are not incidental but central to meaningful power in organizing. 

At a moment marked by uncertainty, Wolfsun sees creativity emerging across sectors. Different groups are exploring varied lanes—state and local elections, federal litigation, immigrant protection—each leveraging distinct sources of power.  

“I appreciate Dean Moore’s religious literacy framework and its attention to internal diversity,” Wolfsun says. “It highlights that different groups have different power lanes. Some groups work primarily in state and local elections, endorsing candidates and supporting policy once they’re in office. Others focus on suing the federal government or protecting immigrants at the local level. Each has different strategies and impact points. In moments of uncertainty, we have to ask: Where are we positioned? Where does our power lie? What can we impact? Then, we lean into those areas, trusting others to cover the rest.” 

Ultimately, Wolfsun shares, combating thinness requires more than strategy; it demands reconnecting with what makes the work meaningful. Sustainable organizing is rooted not only in strategy but in the relationships, values, and vision that give movements their lasting power. It invites organizers to build not just campaigns, but communities grounded by shared purpose and moral imagination.