Sharon, culinary instructor, food arts demonstrator and guest lecturer, is co-author of the 2^nd Ave Deli Cookbook.  Sharon’s life kicked into high gear in 1996 when her father was murdered on his way to make a bank deposit. For the next ten years, Sharon, along with her father’s brother Jack Lebewohl, took over the run of the legendary East Village deli.

From 1996 until 2006 (when the 2^nd Ave Deli closed due to a rent increase) Sharon juggled all aspects of the deli’s management including recipe development, menu selection, supervision of its 50-plus staff, management of the dining room and deli counter and customer service supervisor.  In between, Sharon performed cooking demonstrations on the TODAY show, The Martha Stewart Show, FoodNation with Bobby Flay, The Tony Danza Show and appeared on PBS-TV and local news shows.  She also found time to co-author the 2^nd Ave Deli Cookbook (Villard, $24.95) written to honor the memory of her father.

In 2004 Sharon left her mark on the culinary world by launching the first annual HANUKKAH HOTLINE 1-877-GO-LATKE (1-877-465-2853) offering help for aspiring and accomplished cooks.  “The hotline honors the most popular Jewish holiday when families from around the world gather around the dinner table,” says Sharon who personally responds to calls and emails (sharonlebewohl@aol.com) and offers help and recipes at (www.sharonlebewohl.com).

When the 2^nd Ave Deli re-opened in 2007, on East 33^rd Street, the timing was right for Sharon to follow in her father’s entrepreneurial footsteps. “In 2007 I produced my first DVD, “In the Kitchen with Sharon” with American and Yiddish theatre actor Mike Burnstyn who I cook alongside.  I also began serving on the executive committee of the Hazon International Food Conference,” says Sharon who was honored by the American Jewish Historical Society (the nation’s oldest ethnic historical society) as guest speaker and presenter for their Worlds of Our Fathers and Mothers exhibition.

“After my father’s death, when the family was sitting Shiva, one of his regular dining companions came up to me and said: ‘I had lunch with Abe the day before he died.  It’s such a pity, he was on a diet, and he hardly ate anything.  I know he would have wanted his last meals to be spectacular.’  “I told him not to feel bad.  He was the fourth person to tell me he had lunch with Abe that day.”

Sharon’s family includes sons Tzvi and Eliyahu, daughter Ayalah, and five grandchildren.  A French Culinary Institute graduate, Sharon is working on a book about her father and the birth of the 2^nd Ave Deli and is spearheading an effort to preserve “The Yiddish Walk of Fame” that honors 58 Yiddish actors whose names her father embedded into Hollywood-like stars in the pavement on 10^th St and 2^nd Ave (the original site of the 2^nd Ave Deli) in 1985.

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