R. Papkin was an erudite scholar and sought to strengthen religious observance by establishing yeshiva day schools and community study groups. An active member of the Agudat ha-Rabonim ha-Orthodoxim, he campaigned heavily against the tragedies of assimilation in the United States. In a letter dated 1952, he writes to R. Meir Amsel, editor of the rabbinical periodical Hamaor, of his illnesses and inability to continue fighting the Conservative movement which has displaced Orthodoxy in New Bedford, Mass. R. Papkin did not publish his responsa, however, many of his writings appear in period Torah journals and in the works of his contemporaries.