Abe Lebewohl owned the Second Avenue Deli in the East Village and was shot and killed on March 4th, 1996 in a robbery near the NatWest Bank branch at East Fourth Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan.
Ukraine-born Lebewohl immigrated to the United States in 1950 and four years later took over a 10-seat diner, transforming it into a landmark deli restaurant on the southeast corner of Second Avenue and East 10th Street. His family continued running the deli after his death, but closed the location in 2006. Two new 2nd Ave Deli locations have since opened in Murray Hill and the Upper East Side.
