Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Harris campaign Jewish liaison Ilan Goldenberg traveled to Pittsburgh on Sunday to make a closing pitch to Jewish voters in the critical swing state ahead of Tuesday’s election.

A source familiar with the event said it was geared, in part, at reassuring Jewish voters in Pittsburgh who’ve been frustrated by anti-Israel rhetoric from Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) and to reiterate that Vice President Kamala Harris does not share Lee’s positions on Israel. 

“I joined the Harris campaign in showing solidarity with the Pittsburgh Jewish community, which has been profoundly shaken by both the Tree of Life mass shooting and the post-October 7th outbreak of antisemitism,” Torres said in a statement to Jewish Insider. 

“I did my best to reassure the Jewish community that the Democratic Party — despite the background noise on Twitter, Twitch, and TikTok — has been and will remain fundamentally pro-Israel and that the Vice President herself falls squarely within the pro-Israel consensus that has historically governed American politics, rejecting both the [a]nti-Zionism of the far left and the America-[F]irst isolationism of the far right.”

Torres said he “defended the pro-Israel record of the Biden-Harris administration,” such as sending U.S. aircraft carriers to the region, supporting significant additional aid to Israel, partnering with Israel to intercept aerial attacks and sending U.S. troops to operate a THAAD missile-defense system inside Israel.

“More than any other Democratic nominee in recent history, Vice President Harris has shown striking strategic clarity about the threat Iran poses not only to Israel but also to the United States,” Torres continued, highlighting in particular Harris’ comments describing Iran as the U.S.’ leading adversary. “She has kept a laser-sharp focus on the Iranian threat not only in her most important interview [CBS’s “(60 Minutes)”] but also in her most important speech during [the] DNC.”

The event had around 140 in attendance, including some undecided and hesitant voters on both sides of the aisle and committed Democrats, according to a source familiar with the event. Afterward, Torres attended a weekly vigil for the hostages being held in Gaza.

Jeremy Kazzaz, the executive director of the Beacon Coalition, a nonpartisan Jewish advocacy group, was in the audience. 

“We at Beacon Coalition are looking for all of the allies that we can [find] who are willing to speak up to antisemitism within their own party,” Kazzaz told JI. “So we were happy that Ritchie Torres made the visit to Pittsburgh, because he is one of those voices, and perhaps one of the strongest voices, that has cut through a lot of the noise within the House caucus, who has been willing to to do the very difficult thing of standing up to antisemitism that’s coming from, you know, inside the House.”

Kazzaz said that the Jewish community in Pittsburgh has “a lot of really deep-seated concerns about a lack of allyship among politicians broadly, and some of that is informed by the overt hostility and regular antisemitism demonstrated by Summer Lee, and then the choice of our county executive and our mayor to ultimately decide to side with her” in issuing a statement on the Oct. 7 anniversary blaming Israel for the attack..

“That made a lot of people feel even more lonely and more concerned,” Kazzaz said. “And I think that concern has the potential to spill over into folks not knowing who to vote for for president.”

He said that Torres has been an ally whom the Jewish community has felt it can trust and is something of a “rock star” for the local Jewish community.

The New York Post reported on Sunday evening that the Harris campaign allegedly ignored requests from members of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community not to host Mayor Ed Gainey and Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato at local rallies after they co-signed Lee’s statement.