While living in Little Rock, he was a member of the board of education from 1906 to 1907 and chaplain general of the Arkansas State Guard in 1906.

When he was in Philadelphia, he was chairman of the Mayor's Vice and Crime Commission in 1937 and recommended the state of Pennsylvania reform the parole system.

[4] Wolsey was relatively favorable to non-political aspects of Zionism when he was in Cleveland, but by 1942 he was part of a group of rabbis who opposed the CCAR's resolution for the establishment of a Palestinian Jewish military unit.

He led this dissident group through several conferences that culminated in the formation of the American Council for Judaism, which he became vice-president of.

He also believed the Zionist movement should be dissolved into a larger world Jewry for the creation of a Jewish life and culture in Palestine.