The fact that Frenkel is active above all in the former Soviet Union is due to the fact that he has been established there for nearly 30 years. He established himself in Poland at the end of the 1980s after his confectionery business in Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, went bankrupt. He saw that, following the break-up of the Communist bloc, the majority of Jews in the region were taking the opposite path. In collaboration with the Jewish Agency for Israel and his partner the Libyan Israeli Walter Arbib, he started organising flights to Israel for the migrants. During this period, he established solid friendships in the Polish state administration, including that of intelligence chief General Slawomir Petelicki, while, in Israel, he developed close relations with former prime minister Shimon Peres, of whom he was for a long time a leading financial backer.
But Aaron Frenkel does not only provide financial support for his friend Peres. Although he now lives in Monaco with his wife, former Croat deputy trade minister Maja Brinar, he remains deeply attached to Israel and his Jewish identity. He provides funds for Jewish cultural centres outside Israel and is head of the one in Monaco. He also supports Limmud International, which runs an international network of centres for the study of Jewish culture, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Arts. A major collector of art (and neckties!), Frenkel is a director of the museum.